Jon Goff on Reusable Launch Vehicles and Megaconstellations

Jon Goff with some thoughts on how the second generation megaconstellations will be impacted by the presence of SpaceX as both a constellation operator and launch provider:

And while OneWeb may have the first mover advantage, SpaceX has an important advantage for second generation systems–they also own their own in-house low-cost launch system. You don’t have to fawn over every tweet Elon types to believe that they’re likely one of the cheapest launch providers in the world right now, and that their launch costs are probably significantly lower than anyone else’s launch price.

This is a really interesting and important point to consider. SpaceX’s internal launch cost is incredibly low with a reusable first stage—and better yet, that first stage was already paid for by someone else.

While it might not be in some of these companies’ best interest to fly with SpaceX—thereby subsidizing a launch (or ten) of a competitor—no one else is yet approaching SpaceX’s launch price. For the time period between when SpaceX begins flying their own, competing constellation satellites and when someone else approaches their launch price, things might get a bit awkward and standoffish.