Russia does not have the tech or economy and the EU must watch its pocketbook even more than the US. India might get close but by then Musk will have moved on and advanced even further to providing launches faster and cheaper than he does now.

Musk might get to the Mars but the Moon is the next logical off planet permanent colony.

One of Musk’s goals (other than colonize Mars) is to provide low cost access to space. I would suggest that SpaceX will not raise prices any faster than inflation. Although it means that each flight contributes less to future development projects, it also means that SpaceX should get more customers. This is in line with the low cost access to space, as it opens up space to so much more commercial work than we ever had before low cost commercial access.

David Eastman wrote: “It continues to amaze me that Ariane and ULA both chose to retire their existing launchers and move to new vehicles without retaining some kind of fall-back or transition capability, at the same time, and that both of them seem to lack any urgency in getting past that gap even in the face of SpaceX happily taking all their customers.”

ULA’s main problem is the availability of the BE-4 engine. I’m sure they would be farther along if the engine had been available on time.

Sometimes the contribution made by observationS or experiments is to disprove the original hypothesis.
If that happens, it is still an advancement of knowledge.

David Ross: SpaceX won’t waste anything. They are a launch provider, and make money by providing that service to anyone. And they certainly have the resources to handle as many launches as possible.

If the ESA wishes to spend its money on this project, SpaceX would be foolish to turn it down.

You mean like the US government when they shut down the shuttle without a viable means to replace it?

As for waiting on Starship… why? If they are going to wait for that, they might as well wait for Ariane 6. Falcon (or Falcon Heavy, since it will need fuel to get to L2) is flying now. Un-tested so far, lets say they get Starship to orbit in the next few months. That is still just LEO. To get anywhere else requires the currently unavailable re-fueling in orbit technology. Should they wait for that also?

And just because Starship is projected to have greater upmass capability, does not mean that a bunch of telescopes, or anything for that matter, are all going to the same place. It will not be like a pick up truck that can run around from one orbit to another at will.

I want to see it work.. but I am not holding my breath for trips to the moon, or anyone else, anytime soon.

How long will SpaceX keep prices similar to current levels, while their current competitor platforms fold, and new ones slow walk? Not long I would suggest. I hope Elon gives preference to NASA and DoD, and soaks the rest to maintain his margins.