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pompanoJ t1_it7ozrk wrote

They decline to state commercial launch prices, but estimate $50-60 million. 22,000 lbs to LEO. GSLV Mark 3 production capacity is currently is about 5 per year.

Falcon 9 is 37,000 lbs to LEO for ASDS landing, commercial numbers are similar, I think. Capacity is around 50 per year... who knows how many more second stages they can build.

I wonder why people like OneWeb are going to India? Why pay more for less if F9 is available? Surely they could get a package from SpaceX to launch all of their satellites faster than they can build them, with a package discount that makes it less than GSLV Mark 3.

This article says 36 satellites are going up on the GSLV Mark 3. It took some looking, but I found an article that says SpaceX will carry 48 per launch on their hastily arranged replacement for Soyuz rides. They also had a fuzzy number, but it looks similar to the Indian price. So.... why pay the same price when you could launch 1/3 more with SpaceX at a faster cadence?

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Scorpian_11 t1_it7rbyq wrote

OneWeb is 30 percent owned by an Indian Company so that might be one of the reasons and ofcourse the cost as well.

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pompanoJ t1_it7smnp wrote

Yeah, that would probably cover it.

Do we have a cost? The numbers I saw are Ll guesses, and they are roughly equivalent despite the disparity in payload.

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tandjmohr t1_it81qs2 wrote

OneWeb is a direct competitor to StarLink. I don’t think they will get much help from SpaceX.

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toodroot t1_it8i173 wrote

Many competitors to Starlink launch on Falcon: OneWeb, Eutelsat, SES, Intelsat, Inmarsat, Viasat, basically everyone other than Amazon Kuiper uses or has used Falcon.

Also, SpaceX is selling Falcon launches to Nothrop Grumman to take Cygnus to resupply the ISS -- Cygnus competes with Dragon for the Commercial Resupply program.

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SpaceInMyBrain t1_itali6c wrote

>SpaceX is selling Falcon launches to Nothrop Grumman to take Cygnus to resupply the ISS -- Cygnus competes with Dragon for the Commercial Resupply program.

True, but SpaceX gains $$$ by the deal and loses no missions. The Cygnus missions that F9 will be covering were already contracted for by NASA for Cygnus. It has certain capabilities Dragon does not, so NASA wouldn't have substituted one for the other and given SpaceX more Dragon missions. The contracted for missions were meant to fly on Antares, of course, but only two of those remain and they will fly their missions. SpaceX wasn't awarded those two.

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Xaxxon t1_ite12yg wrote

> Cygnus competes with Dragon

Not really. Another winner when two winners were required isn't really competition. SpaceX was unable to compete for those launches.

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synth_fg t1_it88npj wrote

Didn't they do a deal with space x to use falcon9 instead of the Soyuz launches they had booked after the Russian invasion of Ukraine

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Xaxxon t1_ite10e1 wrote

spacex will launch anything for anyone. They know OneWeb isn't actually competition.

It's like playing basketball with your baby brother. The only one who thinks you're competing is the baby brother.

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