They launched Starlink because the opportunity was there and vertical integration gave them better cost structure and speed of execution than putative competito

They launched Starlink because the opportunity was there and vertical integration gave them better cost structure and speed of execution than putative competitors. Commercial demand for payload space is substantial and growing and lacking in quality competition so they're probably less beholden to govt than many other space contractors But yeah, vibes are shifting from "well more realistic European launch options would be a nice thing to have but SpaceX's cost/kg and schedule is very good" to "actually it may be necessary for security for governments to back launch competitors and OneWeb"