Hacker News Reader

Maybe this is an obvious question, but is spacex allowed to bump / not take orders from its opponents in favor of its own internet satellites? That would effectively force any competitor to launch with someone more expensive, allowing spacex to corner the space-internet market on cost, right?

View on HN

SpaceX can fly--or not--whomever they want. And they are, in fact, not flying their competitors. OneWeb is booked on a variety of SpaceX competitors: Arianespace (mostly Soyuz, but also optionally Ariane 6), Virgin, and Blue Origin.

SpaceX certainly hopes this gives them an advantage, and it probably does, though eventually someone is bound to copy them if they prove successful. Blue Origin is already well on their way to a Falcon 9-alike.

Launch is also only part of the cost of a satellite constellation.

Soyuz is Roscosmos, not Arianespace. Maybe you meant Vega? But that’s a much smaller launcher.

Yes. Just like Samsung can stop selling Apple screens. But they don't, because spacex is hurting for revenue, and satellite launch forecasts have slowed substantially.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com