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  • AlternateRoute@lemmy.ca
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    1 month ago

    Are there credible competitors to Starlink in OneWeb, Amazon’s Project Kuiper, or other planned megaconstellations?

    Well no, at least not in the megaconstellations class as literally NO ONE has access to the same low launch cost or high volume launch capacity without paying for trips on SpaceX.

    There was a lot of talk about how Amazon’s Project Kuiper was going to catch up but it is physically and financially impossible at the moment due to launch capacity of Amazon’s launch partners and even with Kuiper requiring few sat launches. I would have to go back and do the math again but they had like 3 partners that are currently CAPABLE (BlueOrigan is still sub orbital and waiting on New Glenn to work) and even if they use ALL theoretical launch’s at MAX capacity I think it was going to take them something like 3 years to launch the complete Kuiper constellation…

    SpaceX effectively has a monopoly on high speed / low latency satellite internet for the next 5+ years

    • Pennomi@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      New Glenn might actually launch this year, which would be amazing. We’re starting to see a lot of flight hardware… Not holding my breath though.

      • burble@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 month ago

        ✅Vulcan

        🔜Ariane 6

        🔜New Glenn

        The Kuiper fleet is starting to come together, but getting to an operational cadence is another question.

    • burble@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 month ago

      Amazon also has to actually build satellites at some point. They could have already been launching on the Atlas Vs they bought. And having Kuiper sats ready would mean ULA doesn’t have to launch the 2nd Vulcan with a mass sim.

        • burble@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          1 month ago

          I guess that delay from the Kuiper test sats in Oct '23 to the first operational launch soon™ isn’t really different from SpaceX going from the Tintin test sats in Feb '18 to operational sats in May '19. I’m just impatient.