China is investigating ways to recover the first stages of its rockets.
The competition heats up: Like SpaceX, China is investigating ways to recover the first stages of its rockets.
China is also the only launch provider in the world that presently beats SpaceX’s commercial prices. If they succeed in making their first stages reusable they will put themselves in a very strong competitive position.
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The competition heats up: Like SpaceX, China is investigating ways to recover the first stages of its rockets.
China is also the only launch provider in the world that presently beats SpaceX’s commercial prices. If they succeed in making their first stages reusable they will put themselves in a very strong competitive position.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
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4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
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I don’ t think the Chinese do currently beat SpaceX’s prices. I recall reading a story about three years ago in AW&ST that quoted a Chinese space agency official as saying they couldn’t compete with SpaceX’s posted prices. I’m not aware of any development since that would have changed that.
I posted that story here at BtB of the Chinese official complaining about SpaceX’s low prices, but have since seen other reports that show the Chinese prices as slightly less than SpaceX.
Either way, the two are competitive with each other, which is why it is interesting that both are searching for ways to make that first stage reusable. Or as I like to say: Isn’t competition great?