SpaceX simplifies smallsat rideshare program, effectively slashing prices
SpaceX has reworked its smallsat rideshare program to allow smaller satellite customers to book directly with the company, effectively slashing the prices they are charged.
While it technically hasn’t reduced its prices, SpaceX will now allow satellites as small as 50 kilograms to book directly through the company at its virtually unbeatable rate of $5500 per kilogram. Before this change, customers with small satellites would either have to pay for all the extra capacity they weren’t using, boosting their relative cost per kilogram, or arrange their launch services with a third-party aggregator like Spaceflight or Exolaunch.
Part of the reason for this change is the shift by SpaceX to a new satellite deployment platform that allows for a wider variety of satellites of all sizes. Some tiny satellites will no longer have to rely on an aggregator’s own deployment platform.
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SpaceX has reworked its smallsat rideshare program to allow smaller satellite customers to book directly with the company, effectively slashing the prices they are charged.
While it technically hasn’t reduced its prices, SpaceX will now allow satellites as small as 50 kilograms to book directly through the company at its virtually unbeatable rate of $5500 per kilogram. Before this change, customers with small satellites would either have to pay for all the extra capacity they weren’t using, boosting their relative cost per kilogram, or arrange their launch services with a third-party aggregator like Spaceflight or Exolaunch.
Part of the reason for this change is the shift by SpaceX to a new satellite deployment platform that allows for a wider variety of satellites of all sizes. Some tiny satellites will no longer have to rely on an aggregator’s own deployment platform.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the 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. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
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:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
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4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
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You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
So I can get 10 times the mass launched for about 2.5 times what I paid for 5kg. That is a bargain. Expect more rideshare companies to startup and a few of the big ones to fail.
Bob, How much do you weigh?
Since the smallsat launchers still seem to be launching as fast as they can, given the recentness of their entry into the market, SpaceX’s Ridshare program may not yet be hurting them. As they ramp up their launch cadences, we will have to see whether SpaceX becomes their competition or eases out of that market.
It will certainly impact small launchers. They still have the advantage of being able to put your cargo into an orbit not being serviced by the rideshare. And they have capability above 50kg. But this will still put pressure on them.
The question is, what percentage of small sats are 50kg and below. In other words, how much of the market does this represent.
I linked to a company that researches this stuff a while back, will need to dig those up again.
Is 50kg the minimum size? What if a school wants to launch a 1kg cubesat?
Is the mass of the dispenser counted in the mass of the satellite? Or they have standard ones built into the adapter?
Speaking of small launchers.
Long interview with Peter Beck, RocketLab
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zb7_dDOcb78
1:34:40.
Most interesting is that he states the main issues with launch cadence is customer readiness.
He had said in a previous appearance that customer readiness and government paperwork/permissions are the two biggest hold ups.
V-Man asked: “Is 50kg the minimum size? What if a school wants to launch a 1kg cubesat?”
50kg is the minimum size that the customer pays for. He can still mount a 1kg cubesat, but he pays for 50kg. This is why the article mentions “aggregators,” companies that arranges for several satellites, that are below the minimum mass, to ride together so that the aggregate of all the satellites equals or exceeds the minimum mass, resulting in the cost to each customer to be much closer to the $5,500 per kg.
“Is the mass of the dispenser counted in the mass of the satellite? Or they have standard ones built into the adapter?”
From the figures in the article, it looks like SpaceX has standard-sized mounting plates rather than standard release mechanisms or dispensers. However, the article does suggest that SpaceX is flexible enough to supply a dispenser, it does not say whether this would be an additional cost to the customer.
Most likely, the mass of a dispenser or release mechanism is paid in addition to the mass of the satellite. This would mean that a 50kg satellite with a 10kg release mechanism likely costs the $275,000 for the first 50kg plus another $55,000 for the release mechanism, and a 40kg satellite with a 10kg release mechanism would still cost the $275,000 minimum price.
In the 1990s, industry watchers had predicted that if launch costs could be reduced to $2,000 per pound (~$4200 per kg) then there would be a large increase in the demand for launch services. After inflation, SpaceX is charging a similar price to this prediction, and we have seen that there are many smallsats being launched, enough to encourage several companies to dedicate themselves to the smallsat launch market.