Starship Versus Everyone🌏 - SpaceNews This Week

Top stories of the week from SpaceNews

View this email in your browser A weekly roundup of the top SpaceNews stories from this week, every Friday At SATELLITE 2024, Starship and Starlink dominated discussions. Starship's third test flight impressed many but also sparked concerns about SpaceX's potential monopoly over launch services. Elsewhere, budget news, a Cargo Dragon mission to the Space Station and more. Our Top Story Starship could have a big impact on small launch vehicles Jeff Foust, March 21, 2024 WASHINGTON — A large launch vehicle could end up having a big effect on the small launch vehicle market through low prices and encouraging customers to build larger satellites. The emergence of SpaceX's Starship vehicle, which is designed to place 100 metric tons or more into low Earth orbit, has captured the attention of companies developing vehicles that can place one metric ton or less into orbit because of Starship's potential to further reshape a market already affected by the company's Falcon 9. "Starship for sure will disrupt further the launch business and the space business in general," said Marino Fragnito, senior vice president and head of the Vega business unit at Arianespace, during a panel at the Satellite 2024 conference March 20. "One scenario is that [SpaceX Chief Executive Elon] Musk could really monopolize everything." Other News From the Week MORE FROM SATELLITE 2024 Satellite manufacturers defend diminished GEO market Manufacturers of traditional geostationary communications satellites insist demand for their products is not going away thanks to technological advances and interest in multi-orbit solutions. GEO operators look to local service providers to compete against Starlink Geostationary satellite operators say local service providers in hard-to-reach connectivity markets are helping them counter competition from SpaceX's Starlink low Earth orbit network in Latin America. SpaceX planning rapid turnaround for next Starship flight SpaceX hopes to conduct the next launch of its Starship vehicle as soon as early May, a schedule that will depend on how quickly it can get an amended launch license. Speaking at the Satellite 2024 conference March 19, Gwynne Shotwell, president and chief operating officer of SpaceX, said the company was still reviewing the data from the vehicle's third integrated launch March 14 but expected to be ready to fly again soon. Launch providers look for competitive advantages in era of transition The launch industry is negotiating a transition into new families of launch vehicles, working to bring additional capacity into the market while seeking out competitive advantages against a growing number of competitors. A panel at the Satellite 2024 conference March 18 features two companies that recently completed the first successful launches of new vehicles and four others working on new launch vehicles, in some cases while operating existing ones. LAUNCH Cargo Dragon launches to space station hours after Soyuz scrub A cargo spacecraft launched towards the International Space Station March 21, hours after a rare last-minute abort of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft launch to the station. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral's Space Launch Complex (SLC) 40 at 4:55 p.m. Eastern. The rocket's payload, a cargo Dragon spacecraft, deployed from the Falcon's upper stage 12 minutes after liftoff. Electron launches NRO mission from Wallops Rocket Lab launched a mission for the National Reconnaissance Office from Virginia March 21, the company's second launch in as many weeks. MILITARY Lawmakers cut $1 billion from Space Force's 2024 budget request The House and Senate Appropriations Committees early on March 21 unveiled a long-awaited fiscal year 2024 compromise spending package for government agencies, including $825 billion for the Defense Department. U.S. military to boost surveillance assets in orbit The U.S. military is looking to bolster its ability to detect and track potential threats in the geosynchronous equatorial orbit, a critical orbital perch for the nation's most important military and intelligence satellites. Copyright (C) 2024 Multiverse Media Inc.. All rights reserved. You signed up to receive this newsletter on Spacenews.com. At times you may receive marketing material. Our mailing address is: Multiverse Media Inc. 100 Fillmore St. 5th Floor Denver, CO 80206 USA Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe