SpaceX’s monstrous, dirt-cheap Starship may transform space travel
The real problem for Starship (IMHO) is Falcon 9. Falcon 9 is now the most reliable launch vehicle ever created. With reuse the may well be $10m per launch or even less by now and likely to continue to drop. F9 can deliver ~22t to LEO and smaller payloads to geosynchronous orbit. The payloads F9 can&#x27;t deliver are quite small.<p>What people forget is that payloads are deeply coupled to their launch vehicles. The launch vehicle will dictate the maximum weight and dimensions of the payload. You can&#x27;t just take a payload designed for one vehicle and put it on another.<p>The evidence for this is the relatively few Falcon Heavy launches we&#x27;ve had and are planned.<p>So now SpaceX has all this launch capacity without the matching demand for it. It&#x27;s a big part of why Starlink exists.<p>Cheaper and larger payload capacities will ultimately change the industry and create demand but that takes years.<p>It&#x27;s likely Starship will launch ISS replacements but is there sufficient demand there for this ambitious launch vehicle? What else will it be used for? That&#x27;s a bit of an open question.