INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
But the same changes that have made the industry accessible have made it increasingly complex to track its trends
By default, all space startups are exciting, but companies vary widely in risk, capital intensity and maturity
today, orbital launch service has gone from a government-funded niche dominated by a handful of primes to a vibrant, growing community
majority of missions for decades
The barrier to entry for launch is huge.As such there are three ways to enter the sector: brute force, stealth, and novelty.Brute force is
how SpaceX and Blue Origin have managed to accomplish what they have
term), they can perform the research and engineering necessary to make a full-scale launch platform
Few of these can ever really exist, and participation is limited when they do
Fortunately we all reap the benefits when billionaires compete for space superiority.Stealth, perhaps better described as smart positioning,
But what founder Peter Beck and his crew did was anticipate the market and work doggedly towards a specific solution.Rocket Lab is focused
on small payloads, delivered with short turnaround time
As we see the growth and aging of small sat constellations, the need for replenishment will increase, leading to demand for single
spacecraft to unique orbits
The ability to deploy new satellites to precise orbits in a matter of hours, not months or years, is critical to government and commercial
unexciting as for year after year they made measured progress but took on no cargo and made no money
Patience is the primary virtue here
doubted it.The third category of launch is novelty: entirely new launch techniques like SpinLaunch or Leo Aerospace
Companies taking this approach are high-risk, high-reward propositions that often need serious funding before they can even prove the basic
physical possibility of their launch technique
collect a significant portion of the new and growing launch market
Here patience is not so much required as extra diligence and outside expertise to help separate the wheat from the chaff
Something like SpinLaunch may sound outlandish at first, but the Saturn V rocket still seems outlandish now, decades after it was built
