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tanrgith t1_jcyxu0z wrote

It's hard to overstate how far ahead of anyone else SpaceX is. Honestly don't know if I can recall a similar situation in an industry

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robotical712 t1_jcz958i wrote

What's really crazy is the traditional launch heavyweights (ULA and Arianespace) are still acting like their competition are expendable Falcon 9s.

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GatMn t1_jd0365x wrote

What do you mean? Their competition is the falcon 9

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paulhockey5 t1_jd073kd wrote

They couldn’t keep up when SpaceX was expending the boosters, now that they’re reusing the boosters 15+ times each there is no chance.

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seanflyon t1_jd03xf8 wrote

Their current competition is reusable Falcon 9 and the competition for their in-development rockets is Starship.

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Hustler-1 t1_jczchzt wrote

Only thing I can think of is Ford and the invention of the assembly line.

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didi0625 t1_jcz9bb1 wrote

They landed their first f9 in December 2015. Some private companies will try in the next years to land a 1st stage. So i'd say 10 years.

Honestly it's frightening to see Sx's lead in launch capabilities. Hopefully we will be able to count on multiple launch companies in a few years. I'm rooting for Rocketlab (i invested in this company just fyi), but others will also try to take some space in the industry.

Another point is that Sx mainly launches for himself (starlink). So numbers, while being absolutely impressive, are inflated.

Then there is starship. I hope it will work for the future of space exploration and space economy, but they show it's not easy, even if you are SpaceX !

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Shrike99 t1_jczdu6f wrote

> So numbers, while being absolutely impressive, are inflated.

If you want to discount those then you also need to effectively discount CASC/CALT and Roscosmos, who were second and third place respectively for most launches last year, since they're launching almost entirely for themselves. (Roscomos had one commercial launch last year before they invaded Ukraine)

That puts Rocketlab in second place with 9 commercial launches last year compared to SpaceX's 27. Though of course SpaceX still crushes them on upmass given the size difference - not to mention three of those launches were Transporter missions each carrying the equivalent of like a dozen RocketLab customers.

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didi0625 t1_jczid5p wrote

Size does matter in the world of launchers. Small launcher vs medium launcher will obviously show that some rideshare missions done with F9 would equate to a dozen electron launches.

I'm not downplaying as much Sx accomplishment in their active series of flawless launching and landing than you would think.

Tesla was the king of EVs a few years ago. Today i find teslas lacking in front of other EVs. SpaceX just has no real competition, and that could be a flaw for the space industry.

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Shrike99 t1_jd02lc6 wrote

My point was actually more that the gap between SpaceX and CASC/CALT is proportionally smaller than SpaceX minus Starlink vs RocketLab (or ULA if going by upmass).

By excluding internal launches, you're actually proportionally increasing SpaceX's lead.

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tickleMyBigPoop t1_jd3cybh wrote

> Today i find teslas lacking in front of other EVs

Really because i'm in the market and for the same price it seems Tesla comes out ahead, especially because the price you see online is the price you pay. Then there's supercharging stations.

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Taxington t1_jd90dib wrote

Your milage may vary by country.

>especially because the price you see online is the price you pay

In most western countries anything els is ilegal.

>Then there's supercharging stations.

EU don't allow that kind of anti consumer behavior all EVs use CCS. No propriety connectors, apple are currently getting fucked over that kind of nonsense.

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tickleMyBigPoop t1_jd9ea8z wrote

>In most western countries anything els is ilegal.

i didn't know bartering is illegal.

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Taxington t1_jdbu406 wrote

Don't be obtuse. It's hidden costs thats illegal.

The price listed is the price you pay.

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tickleMyBigPoop t1_jdcocyw wrote

And I’m not talking about hidden costs, dealerships have prices higher than MSRP.

Except Tesla because there’s no Tesla dealerships

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CMDR_Shazbot t1_jd23fvg wrote

How is that inflated? They're literally designing, building, launching, maintaining, and recovering their own products. The only difference between a customer launch and their own are tolerances, mission design, and who's paying them. If rocketlab (also love them) was building and putting up their own satellites weekly, we also wouldn't discount their achievements.

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LeakyJXL t1_jd20m6o wrote

Dont forget about ASML, the leading chip manufacturing company

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