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Old 19-11-2020, 10:10 PM
Xeteth (David)
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Xeteth is offline
 
Join Date: Jul 2019
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posts: 129
Good luck to the Russians, any new hardware and competition in space drives innovation and delivers competitive pricing. However, I honestly don't know if they will have the resources to do it - it will require a large investment and they will probably see many setbacks as did SpaceX in the early days.

One of the key benefits that SpaceX has is that it currently is one of the cheapest options for launching payloads, combined with a rapid development cycle for new hardware. However, they have recognised that if there were another company that was able to achieve reusable rockets (and therefore offer competitive launch prices) then they lose the somewhat 'monopoly' on the market. But, they're smart. They've found something that can keep the cashflow coming in, and in a big way - Starlink, a constellation of thousands of satellites providing high-speed internet access across the globe.

On one hand, I absolutely love SpaceX. They're driving innovation in the space field and really making progress with what they're doing. Starship development is fascinating and I can't wait to see Super Heavy and Starship fly. But on the other hand, Starlink is going to obliterate and degrade ground-based astronomy as we know it and they seem to have little care for these impacts unfortunately.

Anyway, that's a whole other story. Back to the rocket thing - I love any new space hardware so it'll be another interesting story to follow.
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