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Very curious to see once spacex has starship working if it will attempt to build a permanent platform in space.

shadowgovt 3y ago
It's definitely on the roadmap somewhere. SpaceX's problem as a private company is that they've been so successful that they're a victim of their own success; they've captured a market that isn't necessarily a growth sector by itself, they need people to have a reason to launch payloads. It's one of the reasons they're in Starlink; making their own payloads justifies continued development and operation of their rocketry sector. So a space hotel would be a huge justification of their continued existence as a private concern.
- sneak 3y ago
  I think Starlink is justified because it results in tons of recurring revenue (thus funding R&D), not because they need payloads for their rockets.
DylanSp 3y ago
I could definitely imagine SpaceX launching another company's station, like what Axiom has in mind. I don't know if SpaceX would want to build a crewed orbital station themselves and operate it; I don't think they want to get into that business, but they might eventually want a research platform for developing Mars missions, testing out life support systems and the like.
tomatotomato37 3y ago
I wonder how that's going to fare with the clamshell configuration of the starship in its reusable configuration. If there is one advantage to traditional rockets, its that you can get away with really bulbous disposable fairing configurations needed to fit something large and cumbersome like a station component.
- thegrim33 3y ago
  Well I mean it still has a bigger payload bay than the space shuttle, at 56x26 feet vs 60x15 feet for the shuttle. It can lift roughly 3.5x the volume and 4x the mass as the shuttle into orbit.
  - wonderwonder 3y ago
    what's really going to be interesting is if they can get a boring machine into there and out again for mars.

It's definitely on the roadmap somewhere. SpaceX's problem as a private company is that they've been so successful that they're a victim of their own success; they've captured a market that isn't necessarily a growth sector by itself, they need people to have a reason to launch payloads. It's one of the reasons they're in Starlink; making their own payloads justifies continued development and operation of their rocketry sector. So a space hotel would be a huge justification of their continued existence as a private concern.

sneak 3y ago
I think Starlink is justified because it results in tons of recurring revenue (thus funding R&D), not because they need payloads for their rockets.

DylanSp 3y ago

I could definitely imagine SpaceX launching another company's station, like what Axiom has in mind. I don't know if SpaceX would want to build a crewed orbital station themselves and operate it; I don't think they want to get into that business, but they might eventually want a research platform for developing Mars missions, testing out life support systems and the like.

tomatotomato37 3y ago

I wonder how that's going to fare with the clamshell configuration of the starship in its reusable configuration. If there is one advantage to traditional rockets, its that you can get away with really bulbous disposable fairing configurations needed to fit something large and cumbersome like a station component.

thegrim33 3y ago
Well I mean it still has a bigger payload bay than the space shuttle, at 56x26 feet vs 60x15 feet for the shuttle. It can lift roughly 3.5x the volume and 4x the mass as the shuttle into orbit.
- wonderwonder 3y ago
  what's really going to be interesting is if they can get a boring machine into there and out again for mars.