SpaceX VP of Commercial Sales Jonathan Hofeller said SpaceX plans to launch the same booster for the fifth or sixth time by the end of 2019. SpaceX has used the same booster up to three times. This would mean one of the older boosters would be used for another three launches.
SpaceX’s Jonathan Hofeller indicated that SpaceX normal Falcon 9’s base price is ~$50 million.
SpaceX will launch up to six Starlink missions by the end of 2019. The number of non-Starlink missions could reach 21 which would be up to 14 more non-Starlink launches.
Shotwell: expecting 18-21 launches this year; Starlink missions would be on top of that. Plenty of production capacity to handle it. #SATShow
— Jeff Foust (@jeff_foust) May 7, 2019
Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX: look forward to 2022 when we’re the old guys on the block (vs new vehicles from ULA, Blue, Northrop). But “really excited” about Starship. #SATShow
— Jeff Foust (@jeff_foust) May 7, 2019
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She might be referring to the fact that everything Musk promises ends up taking twice as long as he says.
This is totally acceptable because even at that rate it’s still way ahead of everything else in the 21st century tech industry field. So we just apply the 2x factor and still celebrate.
But when applied to a multi-decade plan all of a sudden a 2x factor runs into hard limits.
Jennifer. Are you predicting that Elon will die of old age before he is able to mass produce big rig trucks? Or that, when he is getting $20 B or more per year that he won’t be able to afford to pay for cargo flights to Mars in support of a growing settlement there?
I think solving the aging problem will be needed for this to happen.
What will he buy to speed that up?
You may be right about that. Tesla is one of the best selling vehicles. He is talking about using a network of automated Teslas to gobble up the Uber/Lyft market. He is talking about Boring tunnels only using a set of Tesla’s where people are picked up by a Tesla, are driven to the tunnel, bypass the traffic, and then use the Tesla afterwards. So he begins to take over the personal vehicle market. If he eventually stops selling his electric trucks and starts his own trucking company then he begins to take over the $660 B trucking market. So yes, revenue from Starlink could result in his owning Tesla and becoming a trillionaire resulting in a colony on Mars.
Starlink is going to make Elon Musk the richest man on Earth in a couple years. At which time if Tesla has not taken off, he will buy tesla and make it take off. He regrets going public with Tesla and has said so.