SpaceX successfully launches 50 Starlink satellites
Capitalism in space: SpaceX today successfully launched another 50 Starlink satellites using its Falcon 9 rocket.
The first stage, on its fourth flight, landed successfully on the drone ship in the Pacific. The fairings completed their third flight. The satellites themselves have not yet been deployed, as of this moment. Deployment is expected in about an hour.
The leaders in the 2022 launch race:
8 SpaceX
2 China
2 Russia
SpaceX is so far maintaining a launch rate of one launch per week in ’22, as the company had predicted.
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Capitalism in space: SpaceX today successfully launched another 50 Starlink satellites using its Falcon 9 rocket.
The first stage, on its fourth flight, landed successfully on the drone ship in the Pacific. The fairings completed their third flight. The satellites themselves have not yet been deployed, as of this moment. Deployment is expected in about an hour.
The leaders in the 2022 launch race:
8 SpaceX
2 China
2 Russia
SpaceX is so far maintaining a launch rate of one launch per week in ’22, as the company had predicted.
The support of my readers through the years has given 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. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
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. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to 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.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five 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.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
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. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
And launches coming Mar 3rd and 7th for more Starlinks, keeping up that pace.
How far away can these launches be seen?
I am thinking of buying land in the area just to watch the launches.
“The first stage, on its fourth flight, landed successfully on the drone ship in the Pacific.”
A better phrase than “landed successfully” would be “nailed the landing…” It was dead center.
I wonder in real costs what each of these starlink launches is costing Spacex. Between recovery, rehab of the rocket(even if its small its some), transport, fuel.
Its a lot less than a most other launch companies but its still not nothing and where is starlink getting when it comes to covering that cost.
Sayomara-
–this has come up recently in the comments (SpaceX’s internal costs for Starlink) and I think it’s entirely safe to say, they are THE low-cost provider, on the face of the Earth. It’s orders of magnitude lower than anyone.
The only good thing this year…but it feels SpaceX used up the planet’s good luck. My co-worker was murdered trying to get out of an abusive relationship…I have oil in the radiator and am too broke to fix it…the sacking of Kiev…
“the sacking of Kiev”
For a thorough job of that you need the Mongols. I wonder if there’s any Mongolian mercenaries out there?
https://medieval2.heavengames.com/m2tw/history/historical_battles_folder/sack_kiev/
Pzatchok
A Quick look—-
Google Crud:
If you are close to the east coast, near to the Cape Canaveral launch platform, then you will have a prime position to watch the launch. Cape Canaveral launch viewing is also possible from further away. Larger rockets like the SpaceX Falcon Heavy can be seen after take off from distances up to around 700km away.
___________
From Quora:
https://www.quora.com/When-a-rocket-launches-from-Cape-Canaveral-how-far-away-can-you-be-and-still-see-the-rocket-as-it-climbs-into-space
Sayomara,
wayne is correct, we had this discussion a few weeks ago, and I think that the figure was at least $15 million but probably less than $28 million.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zku7Hstjv8A#t=1179
If SpaceX is doing it right, the launch side of the company charges the Starlink side the full price, otherwise the investors in the launchers are subsidizing the investors in the Starlink by more than $20 million per launch. Either way, the cost for a Starlink launch is less on a Falcon 9 than on pretty much any other launcher.
As for the cost of a Falcon 9 launch.
Its what ever the seller and buyer agree on.
If you actually want the true cost so you know the profit margin Musk is making. Well that’s his business.
I bet the recovery costs of the rocket and fairings are under a million by now. The boats should be paid for by now.
The fuel is less than a million.
And if all he has to replace is the second stage then I bet that’s about than 5 million.
Counting in labor and other costs I bet a relaunch is about 10 million total. Everything over that is profit.
Triple that 10 mill to cover total replacements and future costs and that is pretty much what he is charging.