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Starlink revenue in 2022 is reported to be $1.4B and SpaceX is $4.6B. SpaceX did 61 launches in 2022, or $75M per launch. Elon's on record saying it costs ~$65M

Starlink revenue in 2022 is reported to be $1.4B and SpaceX is $4.6B. SpaceX did 61 launches in 2022, or $75M per launch. Elon's on record saying it costs ~$65M to launch a rocket. So, assuming there wasn't another interested buyer, SpaceX is making about $10M allowing AST SpaceMobile to launch, but there's (potentially) a billion at stake if Starlink competition arises. I realize I'm mixing revenue and profits a bit. Just trying to ballpark some numbers. A year ago I would've agreed with you, but Starlink's revenue is up 600% YoY. There's enough money in Starlink for SpaceX to not risk it. I don't know why they allow it. Perhaps a sign of good faith to keep regulators off their backs?

AnthonyMouse 3y ago
> SpaceX is making about $10M allowing AST SpaceMobile to launch $10M per launch. By comparison, Starlink has had over 100 launches: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Starlink_and_Starshield_launches https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Starlink_and_Starshiel... AT&T doing the same number of launches would generate over $1B in profit. And again, Starlink is already competing with land-based cellular networks, and so would AT&T. So the bulk of the AT&T satellite customers could come at the expense of other land-based cellular networks rather than Starlink -- Starlink has ~2M users compared to >140M for Verizon Wireless (much less carriers in other countries), so who are they really competing with?
kiba 3y ago
The price is nominally 67 million to launch in 2022.[1] A year ago I would've agreed with you, but Starlink's revenue is up 600% YoY. There's enough money in Starlink for SpaceX to not risk it. The problem of using a purely profit oriented analysis is that you missed major pieces of the puzzle. Antitrust action would be one reason that you neglected. Another reason is SpaceX's mission, which is the colonization of Mars. To do that, SpaceX need to help bootstrap an entire space economy from scratch to make colonization more than a pipe dream. 1. https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/23/spacex-raises-prices-for-launches-and-starlink-due-to-inflation.html https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/23/spacex-raises-prices-for-lau...

AnthonyMouse 3y ago

> SpaceX is making about $10M allowing AST SpaceMobile to launch $10M per launch. By comparison, Starlink has had over 100 launches: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Starlink_and_Starshield_launches https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Starlink_and_Starshiel... AT&T doing the same number of launches would generate over $1B in profit. And again, Starlink is already competing with land-based cellular networks, and so would AT&T. So the bulk of the AT&T satellite customers could come at the expense of other land-based cellular networks rather than Starlink -- Starlink has ~2M users compared to >140M for Verizon Wireless (much less carriers in other countries), so who are they really competing with?

kiba 3y ago

The price is nominally 67 million to launch in 2022.[1] A year ago I would've agreed with you, but Starlink's revenue is up 600% YoY. There's enough money in Starlink for SpaceX to not risk it. The problem of using a purely profit oriented analysis is that you missed major pieces of the puzzle. Antitrust action would be one reason that you neglected. Another reason is SpaceX's mission, which is the colonization of Mars. To do that, SpaceX need to help bootstrap an entire space economy from scratch to make colonization more than a pipe dream. 1. https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/23/spacex-raises-prices-for-launches-and-starlink-due-to-inflation.html https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/23/spacex-raises-prices-for-lau...