[Robotbeat]

Space is notoriously expensive... until it isn’t. Launch costs have reduced by an order of magnitude and may reduce by another as full reuse becomes feasible. All of a sudden, you’re using near-commodity solar cells with a higher capacity factor (and more consistency) than on the ground. Power is thus not so expensive any more.

Industry rules of thumb are only good if the industry is stagnant.

[vel0city]

While the cost of putting more solar panels and batteries in space is one limiting factor, the ability to reject heat in a near vacuum is another issue to consider. This is another thing which usually limits the practical power budget of things in space.

[new_realist]

And yet SpaceX still struggles to find launch volume.

[gpm]

I'm not sure what you're trying to say here. That SpaceX's launch business struggles to find enough customers, or that SpaceX's satellite business struggles to get enough launches to orbit?

Ironically both are sort of true... and I'm not sure how either of them respond to the post you replied to.

SpaceX has been struggling to get enough external customers recently, the launch market has been in a bit of a slump and external customers haven't yet substantially responded to the lowering launch costs.

SpaceX's Starlink constellation needs a huge number of launches, to the point where it seems at best barely feasible in both cost and launch volume to launch it on current rockets. They hope to fix this with their in-development starship rocket which should be able to launch an order of magnitude more satellites at a time (400 vs 60), at an order of magnitude less cost as a result of full re-usability and easier construction of the rocket.

[scottLobster]

Space isn't javascript. It takes years and many millions of dollars to build a sophisticated satellite, and SpaceX's market dominance didn't happen until last year. Most those who may want the take advantage of the lowered launch costs aren't yet in a position to do so

[Robotbeat]

...which is why they're creating their own megaconstellation: to produce their own demand.

This has always been a conundrum for space launch: demand is, in the short term, very inelastic and the market is small, so if you reduce prices through reuse, you might actually reduce your own revenue if you're not careful. The way around it is to create your own demand.

Anyway, this new firm is an example of a new source of demand. This will provide additional launch volume.