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There are a few other interesting companies at the smaller scale and seem to doing fine (albeit some with hiccups and bankruptcy/reincarnation but alas, that's
by _joel 5y ago
There are a few other interesting companies at the smaller scale and seem to doing fine (albeit some with hiccups and bankruptcy/reincarnation but alas, that's business). RocketLab are going great guns as are Firefly and companies like Astra and Relativity Space (cool 3d printed rockets!) are closely following the pack. It's only because of Bezos's profile and the fact it's been running for decades with no real results that make it seem SpaceX are the only ones killing it.
- panick21_ 5y agoThese are all rocket companies, I was talking about space station companies. RocketLab, Firefly, Astra, Relativity Space are all small and have proven little. RocketLab has the most but its still a tiny rocket with a high failure rate so far. But yeah great that they exists. ABL Space belongs in that group. I think the companies that actually want to do things in space are just as interesting and get less talked about.
- _joel 5y agoI get that, but they've done more than Blue Origin already. It's looking like ULA will go for Russian engines rather than the BE-4 ones that were promised by B.O. years ago, whereas the other companies are quietly cracking on and making decent progress, considering their relative funding and resource. Some of the other companies have made actual orbital attempts too (some very close!) whereas what's B.O. done, a joyride for a few people to just past the Karman line. SpaceX could send their Starship 2.0 (12m diameter opposed to 9, it was going to be 15m) and turn those into stations, which would seem to be a cheaper and quicker solution