Re:SpaceX is now building a Raptor engine a day, NASA says
by yamtaddle on Wednesday November 02, 2022 @04:19PM
(#33442387)
I'd encourage anyone bothered by this post (evidently, someone was) to check out the stats on past and upcoming SpaceX contracts. The overwhelming majority are the US military and NASA, and the US military's share isn't far behind NASA. Seems clear to me the smart money is on "same stuff, but more of it" if they bring costs down even farther. And I'd say the US military's got more room in the budget to quickly put together useful payloads than NASA does, if the prices drop, which narrows it down to "mostly more military stuff". And especially if Starship gives them the ability to put large payloads in higher orbits on the cheap. I bet they've got filing cabinets and skunkworks warehouses full of shit they'd love to build/finish and launch as soon as the costs work out.
But maybe I'll be surprised and military launches will remain about the same while StarLink competitors and elementary school students launching cubesats will eat up all that new, cheaper capacity.
But maybe I'll be surprised and military launches will remain about the same while StarLink competitors and elementary school students launching cubesats will eat up all that new, cheaper capacity.