[minetest2048]

Even if thats true, who else can launch satellites at SpaceX price and regularity? This is an actual question, when Falcon 9 stage 2 exploded several months ago, my cubesats got delayed

I know several space startups that's currently limited by launch prices

[sfblah]

Who cares? Since the 1960s, space launching has never been limited by supply. It's limited by demand. That's why 80% of SpaceX's cargo is for satellites to support their marginally useful Starlink business. Like Hyperloop, "space startups" are just dressed up snake oil.

Imagine if there were hundreds of "startups" aiming to sink stuff for some reason to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. Sure, doing that is difficult and fun to think about from a science fiction perspective, but the bar to show how such a thing could be useful is and should be quite high.

I asked GPT to give me the 5 most compelling space startups created since 2020. Here's what it gave me:

* Space refueling

* Getting things back from space more cheaply

* Removing space debris

* Getting things to space more cheaply

* Microgravity life sciences

Of these, only the last one is an actual product. The others are just picks and shovels for nonexistent products. And, I don't see why microgravity life sciences requires the ability to deploy unlimited quantities of crap to low-Earth orbit.

[panick21_]

Oh my good you have really gone deep into the rabbit hole. Sad to see.

> Since the 1960s, space launching has never been limited by supply.

It has been limited by price. Tons of business that now exists could have existed before. There is a whole history of sat companies that went bust, and big reason they did go bust is because the capital requirements were to high.

And even if your statement was true, the only reason it was even remotely true is because things like the Space Shuttle were subsidized by the government at billions and billions of $ ever year.

Now the government doesn't have to subsidize launch anymore.

> That's why 80% of SpaceX's cargo is for satellites to support their marginally useful Starlink business.

4 million subscribers 'marginally useful' ...

> Like Hyperloop, "space startups" are just dressed up snake oil.

Hyperloop was literally just a idea blue paper. Starlink has 400 million subscribers and has had a literal influence in the larges European war in 7 decades. But sure those are comparable. Totally.

> I asked GPT

That you resort to that because you clearly don't know any of the industry yourself is very telling.

[sfblah]

They don’t have 400 million Starlink subscribers you moron.

[panick21_]

Correct, its 4 million. I was thinking about 4 million at at 100$ per month initially. 4 million doesn't change my point however.