> Gold is not all that useful by itself, so launching a bunch of gold into space would not be throwing wealth away the way launching an expensive and fancy sate

> Gold is not all that useful by itself, so launching a bunch of gold into space would not be throwing wealth away the way launching an expensive and fancy satellite is. At the point of launch the satellite would be even less valuable (in the use value sense, which is what you're referring to) than a bunch of gold. At least gold could be put to some use (it is a useful metal), while a satellite's only useful purpose is to be launched into and operate in space. It's why a satellite exists, you would lose wealth only if it wasn't launched.