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🚨 A Bengaluru rocket startup is chasing what SpaceX has not fully done | IN BRIEF 👇 An 🇮🇳 Indian startup is pursuing a goal few companies outside SpaceX have attempted: a fully reusable medium-lift rocket that recovers both stages. Bengaluru-based EtherealX is developing Razor Crest Mk-1. The company... was founded in 2022 by Manu J. Nair, former ISRO scientist Shubhayu Sardar and aerospace engineer Prashant Sharma. Nair, 27, completed scientist-astronaut training under Project PoSSUM, a NASA-supported programme. His father served in the Indian Air Force. THE ROCKET > About 71 metres tall > About 24.8 tonnes to LEO in expendable mode and about 8 tonnes when fully reusable > Target launch cost of $350–$2,000 per kg, against Falcon 9 figures often cited near $2,700 per kg THE TECHNOLOGY > In-house Stallion and Pegasus engines using RP-1 and liquid oxygen > Booster and upper stage both designed for recovery THE BUSINESS > About $130 million in pre-flight launch MoUs, not completed missions > $20.5 million Series A led by TDK Ventures and BIG Capital > Valuation of about $80.5 million A demonstration flight is targeted as early as late 2027. The vehicle has not flown. Full two-stage reuse at this class remains unproven. Success would give India a medium-lift launcher and the global market another route to orbit.show more

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Elon Musk: Starship 3 will cost less per flight than Falcon 1 but has 400 times the payload. “One of the most profound things is that Starship 3 will cost less per flight than Falcon 1. That's the difference between a fully reusable rocket or an expendable rocket. The fully reusable rocket with low-cost propellant and autogenous pressurization actually costs less than a tiny expendable rocket. Falcon 1 is about half a ton to orbit. The Starship 3 will be 400 times more payload for less than the cost of a Falcon 1. Ultimately, I think we might be able to get the cost per flight to Earth orbit down to around $2 or $3 million. These are unthinkable numbers. Nobody ever thought this was possible but we're not breaking any physics to achieve this.” SpaceX Update, April 4, 2024

Elon Musk: Starship 3 will cost less per flight than Falcon 1 but has 400 times the payload. “One of the most profound things is that Starship 3 will cost less per flight than Falcon 1. That's the difference between a fully reusable rocket or an expendable rocket. The fully reusable rocket with low-cost propellant and autogenous pressurization actually costs less than a tiny expendable rocket. Falcon 1 is about half a ton to orbit. The Starship 3 will be 400 times more payload for less than the cost of a Falcon 1. Ultimately, I think we might be able to get the cost per flight to Earth orbit down to around $2 or $3 million. These are unthinkable numbers. Nobody ever thought this was possible but we're not breaking any physics to achieve this.” SpaceX Update, April 4, 2024

ELON CLIPS

29,438,539 Aufrufe • vor 1 Jahr

China Achieves First Successful Net Recovery of Reusable Long March 10B Rocket China successfully launched the Long March 10B (CZ-10B) reusable launch vehicle today (10 July 2026) from the Hainan Commercial Space Launch Site, marking a major milestone in the country’s commercial space ambitions. The mission achieved China’s first successful controlled recovery of a rocket first stage and the world’s first successful net-based recovery of an orbital-class launch vehicle. The launch took place around midday from Launch Pad No. 2 at the Hainan Commercial Space Launch Site. Approximately six minutes after stage separation, the rocket’s first stage executed a controlled vertical return to the designated recovery zone at sea. Instead of landing on a conventional drone ship, the booster was successfully captured by the offshore recovery vessel “Navigator” (领航者) using a flexible net capture system, representing the first time such a recovery method has been successfully demonstrated for an orbital launch vehicle. The Long March 10B is a new-generation commercial reusable liquid oxygen-kerosene rocket featuring a 5-metre-diameter core stage and standing nearly 70 metres tall. It is powered by seven reusable YF-100N engines. Even when configured for first-stage recovery, the rocket is capable of delivering at least 16 tonnes to low Earth orbit (LEO). The successful mission represents a significant breakthrough for China’s commercial space sector and reusable launch technology. It fills a longstanding gap in China’s capability to operate a large-lift reusable commercial launch vehicle while demonstrating an innovative recovery approach that could reduce launch costs and improve operational efficiency for future missions. The achievement also positions China among the leading nations advancing reusable launch systems, with the successful net recovery introducing a novel alternative to traditional landing platforms used by other space-launch providers.

China Achieves First Successful Net Recovery of Reusable Long March 10B Rocket China successfully launched the Long March 10B (CZ-10B) reusable launch vehicle today (10 July 2026) from the Hainan Commercial Space Launch Site, marking a major milestone in the country’s commercial space ambitions. The mission achieved China’s first successful controlled recovery of a rocket first stage and the world’s first successful net-based recovery of an orbital-class launch vehicle. The launch took place around midday from Launch Pad No. 2 at the Hainan Commercial Space Launch Site. Approximately six minutes after stage separation, the rocket’s first stage executed a controlled vertical return to the designated recovery zone at sea. Instead of landing on a conventional drone ship, the booster was successfully captured by the offshore recovery vessel “Navigator” (领航者) using a flexible net capture system, representing the first time such a recovery method has been successfully demonstrated for an orbital launch vehicle. The Long March 10B is a new-generation commercial reusable liquid oxygen-kerosene rocket featuring a 5-metre-diameter core stage and standing nearly 70 metres tall. It is powered by seven reusable YF-100N engines. Even when configured for first-stage recovery, the rocket is capable of delivering at least 16 tonnes to low Earth orbit (LEO). The successful mission represents a significant breakthrough for China’s commercial space sector and reusable launch technology. It fills a longstanding gap in China’s capability to operate a large-lift reusable commercial launch vehicle while demonstrating an innovative recovery approach that could reduce launch costs and improve operational efficiency for future missions. The achievement also positions China among the leading nations advancing reusable launch systems, with the successful net recovery introducing a novel alternative to traditional landing platforms used by other space-launch providers.

BRISL

63,848 Aufrufe • vor 1 Monat

ELON IN 2010: FULLY REUSABLE ROCKET NEEDED TO MAKE LIFE MULTI-PLANETARY "The really big breakthrough, the fundamental invention that's needed to make life multi-planetary, is a fully reusable orbit-class rocket system. The Space Shuttle is partly reusable, but the main tank is thrown away every time, and even the parts that are supposed to be reusable are so difficult to reuse or refurbish that the Space Shuttle costs about four times as much per flight as an equivalent expendable vehicle. There have been many attempts to build a reusable rocket system, but they have always been canceled once they discovered that success was not one of the possible outcomes. But this is fundamentally something that has to be solved if life's got to become multi-planetary. At SpaceX, we're hoping to make some progress in that direction." Source: Elon Musk lecture at Yale University. October 14, 2010.

ELON IN 2010: FULLY REUSABLE ROCKET NEEDED TO MAKE LIFE MULTI-PLANETARY "The really big breakthrough, the fundamental invention that's needed to make life multi-planetary, is a fully reusable orbit-class rocket system. The Space Shuttle is partly reusable, but the main tank is thrown away every time, and even the parts that are supposed to be reusable are so difficult to reuse or refurbish that the Space Shuttle costs about four times as much per flight as an equivalent expendable vehicle. There have been many attempts to build a reusable rocket system, but they have always been canceled once they discovered that success was not one of the possible outcomes. But this is fundamentally something that has to be solved if life's got to become multi-planetary. At SpaceX, we're hoping to make some progress in that direction." Source: Elon Musk lecture at Yale University. October 14, 2010.

Mario Nawfal

24,015,896 Aufrufe • vor 2 Jahren

Super Heavy + Starship is the largest and most powerful rocket system ever built. SpaceX has developed a fully reusable two-stage vehicle that significantly exceeds all previous rockets in height, thrust, and payload capacity. The design combines extreme scale with the goal of rapid reusability, something no other launch system has achieved at this level. This architecture is intended to support much higher launch cadence and entirely new classes of missions that were previously impractical. • Height: 121 meters when stacked, taller than any rocket ever flown • Thrust: Super Heavy produces over 16.5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff using 33 Raptor engines • Upper stage: Starship is powered by six Raptor engines and designed for orbital refuelling, reentry, and precise landing • Payload: Can deliver more than 100 metric tons to low Earth orbit in fully reusable configuration • Reusability: Both stages are built for multiple flights, with the booster targeted for tower catch recovery • Mission scope: Enables large satellite constellations, sustained lunar logistics, and cargo transport to Mars • Development impact: Forces the entire industry to rethink what is possible in terms of launch scale and cost This vehicle is the foundation for making humanity multiplanetary. Its success will determine how quickly large-scale space infrastructure can be built and how soon sustained operations beyond Earth become realistic.

Super Heavy + Starship is the largest and most powerful rocket system ever built. SpaceX has developed a fully reusable two-stage vehicle that significantly exceeds all previous rockets in height, thrust, and payload capacity. The design combines extreme scale with the goal of rapid reusability, something no other launch system has achieved at this level. This architecture is intended to support much higher launch cadence and entirely new classes of missions that were previously impractical. • Height: 121 meters when stacked, taller than any rocket ever flown • Thrust: Super Heavy produces over 16.5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff using 33 Raptor engines • Upper stage: Starship is powered by six Raptor engines and designed for orbital refuelling, reentry, and precise landing • Payload: Can deliver more than 100 metric tons to low Earth orbit in fully reusable configuration • Reusability: Both stages are built for multiple flights, with the booster targeted for tower catch recovery • Mission scope: Enables large satellite constellations, sustained lunar logistics, and cargo transport to Mars • Development impact: Forces the entire industry to rethink what is possible in terms of launch scale and cost This vehicle is the foundation for making humanity multiplanetary. Its success will determine how quickly large-scale space infrastructure can be built and how soon sustained operations beyond Earth become realistic.

Joe Hansen

12,001 Aufrufe • vor 1 Monat

ELON: STARSHIP VERSION 3 "CAPABLE OF OVER 100 TONS TO ORBIT, FULLY REUSABLE" WITH FULL DEMONSTRATION IN 2026 "Version 3, which is a gigantic upgrade, has Raptor 3 and pretty much everything changes on the rocket. Version 3 might have some initial tuning pains because it's such a radical redesign. But it's capable of over 100 tons to orbit, fully reusable. Unless we have major setbacks, SpaceX will demonstrate full reusability next year, catching both the booster and the ship, and being able to deliver over 100 tons to a useful orbit." For context: 100 tons to orbit fully reusable is insane. The Space Shuttle could do about 27 tons partially reusable. The Saturn V did 140 tons but was completely expendable. Starship V3 delivering 100 tons and landing everything for immediate reuse means the cost per kilogram drops to levels that make Mars colonization actually feasible. Source: X Freeze Elon Musk

ELON: STARSHIP VERSION 3 "CAPABLE OF OVER 100 TONS TO ORBIT, FULLY REUSABLE" WITH FULL DEMONSTRATION IN 2026 "Version 3, which is a gigantic upgrade, has Raptor 3 and pretty much everything changes on the rocket. Version 3 might have some initial tuning pains because it's such a radical redesign. But it's capable of over 100 tons to orbit, fully reusable. Unless we have major setbacks, SpaceX will demonstrate full reusability next year, catching both the booster and the ship, and being able to deliver over 100 tons to a useful orbit." For context: 100 tons to orbit fully reusable is insane. The Space Shuttle could do about 27 tons partially reusable. The Saturn V did 140 tons but was completely expendable. Starship V3 delivering 100 tons and landing everything for immediate reuse means the cost per kilogram drops to levels that make Mars colonization actually feasible. Source: X Freeze Elon Musk

Mario Nawfal

36,592 Aufrufe • vor 8 Monaten

🚀 India just made space history. Skyroot Aerospace’s Vikram-1 successfully reached orbit on its very first orbital launch attempt from ISRO’s Satish Dhawan Space Centre. Think about how difficult that is. Most new orbital rockets don’t make it on their maiden flight. Skyroot just went from development to orbit on attempt #1. And this isn’t just a win for Skyroot. 🇮🇳 India is now the 3rd country in the world. after the United States and China, to have a private company successfully demonstrate orbital launch capability. Vikram-1 reached an orbit of roughly 450 km and completed its mission in under 20 minutes. A privately developed Indian rocket, designed and built in India, reaching orbit on its first try. That’s a massive milestone for India’s private space industry. The era of Indian private spaceflight has officially arrived. 🇮🇳🚀

🚀 India just made space history. Skyroot Aerospace’s Vikram-1 successfully reached orbit on its very first orbital launch attempt from ISRO’s Satish Dhawan Space Centre. Think about how difficult that is. Most new orbital rockets don’t make it on their maiden flight. Skyroot just went from development to orbit on attempt #1. And this isn’t just a win for Skyroot. 🇮🇳 India is now the 3rd country in the world. after the United States and China, to have a private company successfully demonstrate orbital launch capability. Vikram-1 reached an orbit of roughly 450 km and completed its mission in under 20 minutes. A privately developed Indian rocket, designed and built in India, reaching orbit on its first try. That’s a massive milestone for India’s private space industry. The era of Indian private spaceflight has officially arrived. 🇮🇳🚀

JIX5A

18,645 Aufrufe • vor 28 Tagen

Today marks the most significant milestone in NordSpace's history. We have been awarded $8.3 million in Phase 1 grant funding and selected as a winner of Canada’s Department of National Defence's Launch the North IDEaS challenge, toward the development of our Tundra orbital launch vehicle. Launch the North represents Canada’s most significant investment in sovereign space launch. As a part of the government’s $182.6 million investment in sovereign space launch, DND and CAF aim to secure Canada's strategic autonomy in space, reduce dependence on foreign launch providers, and position Canada as a global leader in commercial and defence-oriented space launch. Canada's moment has arrived. What distinguishes NordSpace is the depth of its vertical integration. We design and manufacture our own engines and vehicles, develop and operate our own spaceport, build and fly our own satellites, and invest in the broader Canadian space ecosystem. This end-to-end architecture stands unique in Canada, inspired by industry leaders such as SpaceX and Rocket Lab, and constitutes the foundational infrastructure upon which a durable, truly sovereign Canadian space industry can be built. At the centre of our architecture is Tundra, powered by our in-house designed and manufactured 3D printed Hadfield engines and capable of delivering 500+ kg to LEO and 350+ kg to SSO. In its Tundra+ configuration, this grows to 1,100 kg to LEO and 850 kg to SSO, with a direct scaling path to our Titan medium-lift vehicle targeting 5,000+ kg to LEO. A proven modular 3D printed engine architecture reduces development time and risk while ensuring Canada's sovereign launch capability grows in step with national defence, commercial, and allied demand over the coming decade. Our Atlantic Spaceport Complex (ASX) in Newfoundland and Labrador is the only purpose-built commercial orbital launch facility in Canada and one of the most strategically advantaged launch sites in the western hemisphere. The ASX supports launch inclinations of 44 to 105 degrees over the Atlantic Ocean, the widest range available from any Canadian site. It also offers the largest safety distances of any spaceport in Canada and highest approved launch cadence, lending to our medium-lift future. The ASX received its landmark environmental approval from the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador and is already under rapid construction with its first launch planned this spring of our Taiga rocket. This award will ultimately lead to the creation of 134 direct jobs by 2028, growing to 650+ by 2032, with 1,600+ indirect and induced jobs across Canada's industrial base as we scale to medium-lift. We rely on a wide ecosystem of Canadian partners including Magellan Aerospace, Kongsberg Geospatial, C-CORE, and Indigenous-led suppliers across the country. National Defence Canadian Armed Forces David McGuinty

Today marks the most significant milestone in NordSpace's history. We have been awarded $8.3 million in Phase 1 grant funding and selected as a winner of Canada’s Department of National Defence's Launch the North IDEaS challenge, toward the development of our Tundra orbital launch vehicle. Launch the North represents Canada’s most significant investment in sovereign space launch. As a part of the government’s $182.6 million investment in sovereign space launch, DND and CAF aim to secure Canada's strategic autonomy in space, reduce dependence on foreign launch providers, and position Canada as a global leader in commercial and defence-oriented space launch. Canada's moment has arrived. What distinguishes NordSpace is the depth of its vertical integration. We design and manufacture our own engines and vehicles, develop and operate our own spaceport, build and fly our own satellites, and invest in the broader Canadian space ecosystem. This end-to-end architecture stands unique in Canada, inspired by industry leaders such as SpaceX and Rocket Lab, and constitutes the foundational infrastructure upon which a durable, truly sovereign Canadian space industry can be built. At the centre of our architecture is Tundra, powered by our in-house designed and manufactured 3D printed Hadfield engines and capable of delivering 500+ kg to LEO and 350+ kg to SSO. In its Tundra+ configuration, this grows to 1,100 kg to LEO and 850 kg to SSO, with a direct scaling path to our Titan medium-lift vehicle targeting 5,000+ kg to LEO. A proven modular 3D printed engine architecture reduces development time and risk while ensuring Canada's sovereign launch capability grows in step with national defence, commercial, and allied demand over the coming decade. Our Atlantic Spaceport Complex (ASX) in Newfoundland and Labrador is the only purpose-built commercial orbital launch facility in Canada and one of the most strategically advantaged launch sites in the western hemisphere. The ASX supports launch inclinations of 44 to 105 degrees over the Atlantic Ocean, the widest range available from any Canadian site. It also offers the largest safety distances of any spaceport in Canada and highest approved launch cadence, lending to our medium-lift future. The ASX received its landmark environmental approval from the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador and is already under rapid construction with its first launch planned this spring of our Taiga rocket. This award will ultimately lead to the creation of 134 direct jobs by 2028, growing to 650+ by 2032, with 1,600+ indirect and induced jobs across Canada's industrial base as we scale to medium-lift. We rely on a wide ecosystem of Canadian partners including Magellan Aerospace, Kongsberg Geospatial, C-CORE, and Indigenous-led suppliers across the country. National Defence Canadian Armed Forces David McGuinty

NordSpace 🇨🇦

14,723 Aufrufe • vor 5 Monaten

For years, NordSpace has been building towards one goal: launching Canadian payloads on Canadian rockets from Canadian soil in a way that’s technologically scalable and commercially sustainable through painstaking vertical integration. Today, that vision is rapidly taking shape and we are pleased to share this inspiring video preview of what Canada’s historic first sovereign orbital space launch will look like. Enjoy! Tundra is NordSpace’s domestically designed, built, and operated light-lift responsive orbital rocket. It can carry up to 1,100 kg fully optimized to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) powered by our proprietary Hadfield rocket engines that are 3D-printed, regeneratively cooled, and pump fed representing the most powerful orbital-class propulsion system in Canada. The modular architecture means the same engine powers both the multi-engine first stage and the vacuum-optimized second stage, reducing complexity while creating a direct scaling path toward our future reusable Titan medium-lift vehicle, capable of 5,000+ kg to LEO. The Atlantic Spaceport Complex (ASX), under construction in Newfoundland and Labrador, is positioned at 46 degrees latitude providing launch access to polar, sun-synchronous, and mid-inclination orbits with the widest range of nominal launch inclinations of any Canadian spaceport. It’s the only fully Canadian-owned and purpose-built commercial orbital launch facility in the country with the highest approved launch cadence and safety distances allowing us to maximize the efficiency, reliability, scalability, and unit economics of our entire launch program. What distinguishes NordSpace is our commitment to vertical integration and first principles approach to business and technology. Rockets, spaceport, and spacecraft are all designed, manufactured, and operated in Canada by one streamlined team. We have already demonstrated flight-ready propulsion, completed integrated rocket tests, and have our first pathfinder satellite, Terra Nova, manifested for launch in 2026 with our edge-AI imaging payload (Chronos) for space domain awareness nd our electric propulsion system (Zephyr-EP). With recently announced $8.3 million in Phase 1 federal funding through the Department of National Defence’s Launch the North initiative, NordSpace is targeting Initial Operational Capability by 2028. Canada is about to become a true spacefaring nation, and our future on Earth and in space will never be the same. Let’s give’r! 🇨🇦🚀 National Defence Defence Research and Development Canada Canadian Space Agency

For years, NordSpace has been building towards one goal: launching Canadian payloads on Canadian rockets from Canadian soil in a way that’s technologically scalable and commercially sustainable through painstaking vertical integration. Today, that vision is rapidly taking shape and we are pleased to share this inspiring video preview of what Canada’s historic first sovereign orbital space launch will look like. Enjoy! Tundra is NordSpace’s domestically designed, built, and operated light-lift responsive orbital rocket. It can carry up to 1,100 kg fully optimized to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) powered by our proprietary Hadfield rocket engines that are 3D-printed, regeneratively cooled, and pump fed representing the most powerful orbital-class propulsion system in Canada. The modular architecture means the same engine powers both the multi-engine first stage and the vacuum-optimized second stage, reducing complexity while creating a direct scaling path toward our future reusable Titan medium-lift vehicle, capable of 5,000+ kg to LEO. The Atlantic Spaceport Complex (ASX), under construction in Newfoundland and Labrador, is positioned at 46 degrees latitude providing launch access to polar, sun-synchronous, and mid-inclination orbits with the widest range of nominal launch inclinations of any Canadian spaceport. It’s the only fully Canadian-owned and purpose-built commercial orbital launch facility in the country with the highest approved launch cadence and safety distances allowing us to maximize the efficiency, reliability, scalability, and unit economics of our entire launch program. What distinguishes NordSpace is our commitment to vertical integration and first principles approach to business and technology. Rockets, spaceport, and spacecraft are all designed, manufactured, and operated in Canada by one streamlined team. We have already demonstrated flight-ready propulsion, completed integrated rocket tests, and have our first pathfinder satellite, Terra Nova, manifested for launch in 2026 with our edge-AI imaging payload (Chronos) for space domain awareness nd our electric propulsion system (Zephyr-EP). With recently announced $8.3 million in Phase 1 federal funding through the Department of National Defence’s Launch the North initiative, NordSpace is targeting Initial Operational Capability by 2028. Canada is about to become a true spacefaring nation, and our future on Earth and in space will never be the same. Let’s give’r! 🇨🇦🚀 National Defence Defence Research and Development Canada Canadian Space Agency

NordSpace 🇨🇦

15,258 Aufrufe • vor 5 Monaten

Why Japan Is Teaching Rockets to Come Home The concept of a reusable rocket is deceptively simple: instead of discarding an expensive stage into the ocean after every launch, land it and launch it again. SpaceX built its competitive edge on this very principle—and now others are mastering the same technology. Japan joined this club over the weekend. Its space agency, JAXA, conducted the first flight of the RV-X—a small experimental rocket developed in partnership with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. The flight was brief, lasting less than a minute: it rose 11 meters, shifted 16 meters laterally, and executed a soft, vertical landing. Keeping a rocket upright on a column of thrust is akin to balancing a pencil on your fingertip—except the pencil weighs tons and is powered by a flame. A split-second error is all it takes to lose that vertical stability. Engineering features play a crucial role here: an upgraded engine that has undergone 165 hot-fire tests and four shock-absorbing legs designed to cushion the impact with the ground. All of this serves as a rehearsal for a far more ambitious goal: a future reusable successor to the current expendable H3 rocket, intended to deliver payloads to orbit at a significantly lower cost. Japan is not acting alone; it is developing the RV-X in collaboration with France and Germany, while just a day earlier, China successfully recovered a first stage for the first time. The world is gradually shifting toward rockets that do not burn up after a single flight but instead return to pick up their next payload.

Why Japan Is Teaching Rockets to Come Home The concept of a reusable rocket is deceptively simple: instead of discarding an expensive stage into the ocean after every launch, land it and launch it again. SpaceX built its competitive edge on this very principle—and now others are mastering the same technology. Japan joined this club over the weekend. Its space agency, JAXA, conducted the first flight of the RV-X—a small experimental rocket developed in partnership with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. The flight was brief, lasting less than a minute: it rose 11 meters, shifted 16 meters laterally, and executed a soft, vertical landing. Keeping a rocket upright on a column of thrust is akin to balancing a pencil on your fingertip—except the pencil weighs tons and is powered by a flame. A split-second error is all it takes to lose that vertical stability. Engineering features play a crucial role here: an upgraded engine that has undergone 165 hot-fire tests and four shock-absorbing legs designed to cushion the impact with the ground. All of this serves as a rehearsal for a far more ambitious goal: a future reusable successor to the current expendable H3 rocket, intended to deliver payloads to orbit at a significantly lower cost. Japan is not acting alone; it is developing the RV-X in collaboration with France and Germany, while just a day earlier, China successfully recovered a first stage for the first time. The world is gradually shifting toward rockets that do not burn up after a single flight but instead return to pick up their next payload.

Black Hole

16,771 Aufrufe • vor 1 Monat

BREAKING: For 10 years the world believed there was one way to reuse a rocket: land it upright on its engines, the way SpaceX does. Today China refused to copy it, and pulled off something SpaceX never managed on a first flight. It caught the rocket instead. The Long March 10B lifted off from Hainan, China this morning, and about 6 minutes later its first stage came back down toward a 25,000-ton ship at sea. It did not land. Hooks on the falling booster snagged a net of tensioned steel wires strung across the deck, the wires riding robotic rails that slid into place to meet it. No landing legs. No touchdown. A rocket plucked out of its own descent by a moving net, on the maiden flight of a brand-new vehicle. No one handed China this. SpaceX guards its rocket tech as “trade secrets”, not “patents”, precisely so it cannot be read and copied. China watched a decade of public flights and then built an entirely different machine to reach the same prize, catching instead of landing, which sheds the heavy legs and spares the fuel a soft touchdown burns to hover. And this was never about cheaper satellites, though it delivers those too, feeding the thousands of birds in China's Starlink rival. Its deeper purpose is the Moon. That booster shares its core with the rocket meant to land Chinese astronauts on the lunar surface by 2030. In the same season, America's own Moon rocket, Starship, has flown 12 times and still has not shown the single maneuver its lunar plan depends on. One flight does not dethrone SpaceX. It has landed hundreds. What ended today is not SpaceX's lead. It is Uncle Sam’s belief that it owns the only road to the Moon. The piece works out which way of coming home actually wins.

Shanaka Anslem Perera ⚡

2,632,873 Aufrufe • vor 1 Monat

In 2002, Elon Musk tried to buy a rocket. The Russians quoted him $8 million per unit. American aerospace companies wanted over $65 million. He walked away from both. On the flight home, he opened a spreadsheet and broke down the raw materials. Aerospace-grade aluminum. Titanium. Copper. Carbon fiber. He priced each on the commodity market. The total came to roughly 2% of what the industry was charging. That gap is what first principles thinking actually looks like. Not "how do we negotiate a better deal." Not "who else sells rockets." Just: what is this thing actually made of, and why does it cost what it costs? The answer was overhead. Legacy processes. Layers of contractors and subcontractors. Margins stacked on margins. Nobody had questioned the price because nobody had questioned the structure. Musk decided to build it himself. The first Falcon 1 exploded 33 seconds after launch. The second made it further but failed to reach orbit. The third exploded too. Three rockets. Three failures. SpaceX was almost out of money. Musk put his last $35 million into the company. If the fourth launch failed, that was it. September 28, 2008. Falcon 1 Flight 4 reached orbit. First privately developed liquid fuel rocket to ever do it. Seven years later, they landed a booster back on Earth for the first time. Now they do it routinely. The cost per launch dropped from $65 million to under $3 million for a reused Falcon 9 booster. Everyone else was reasoning by analogy: rockets are expensive because rockets have always been expensive. Musk reasoned from atoms: rockets are expensive because nobody rebuilt the system from the ground up.

In 2002, Elon Musk tried to buy a rocket. The Russians quoted him $8 million per unit. American aerospace companies wanted over $65 million. He walked away from both. On the flight home, he opened a spreadsheet and broke down the raw materials. Aerospace-grade aluminum. Titanium. Copper. Carbon fiber. He priced each on the commodity market. The total came to roughly 2% of what the industry was charging. That gap is what first principles thinking actually looks like. Not "how do we negotiate a better deal." Not "who else sells rockets." Just: what is this thing actually made of, and why does it cost what it costs? The answer was overhead. Legacy processes. Layers of contractors and subcontractors. Margins stacked on margins. Nobody had questioned the price because nobody had questioned the structure. Musk decided to build it himself. The first Falcon 1 exploded 33 seconds after launch. The second made it further but failed to reach orbit. The third exploded too. Three rockets. Three failures. SpaceX was almost out of money. Musk put his last $35 million into the company. If the fourth launch failed, that was it. September 28, 2008. Falcon 1 Flight 4 reached orbit. First privately developed liquid fuel rocket to ever do it. Seven years later, they landed a booster back on Earth for the first time. Now they do it routinely. The cost per launch dropped from $65 million to under $3 million for a reused Falcon 9 booster. Everyone else was reasoning by analogy: rockets are expensive because rockets have always been expensive. Musk reasoned from atoms: rockets are expensive because nobody rebuilt the system from the ground up.

Peak Thinkers

160,641 Aufrufe • vor 4 Monaten

Progress at NordSpace's Atlantic Spaceport Complex (ASX) in Newfoundland and Labrador is moving quickly both at SLC-01 and SLC-02 in preparation for Tundra’s orbital launch as early as 2028 and ahead of our first of several planned Taiga suborbital launches starting soon. SLC-01 is the site of our orbital launch pads, sized to scale to reusable medium-lift and larger vehicles. SLC-02 is the site for light-lift and suborbital launches, and as seen in this video, pad and site upgrades are in progress. Taiga launching will mark the first ever commercial liquid rocket launch in Canadian history, and is being specifically upgraded and engineered by a small team at NordSpace to fly often and retire risk for our orbital vehicle with successive missions for Tundra including in propulsion, manufacturing, structures, licensing, day-of-launch operations, flight termination, avionics, active controls, and more. SLC-01’s road tender closed earlier this week, and we are in the process of reviewing the bids. Critical design elements of SLC-01 are being finalized to maximize capability, interoperability, and safety this summer to achieve initial operational readiness by 2027. With an approved spaceport integrated into our vertically aligned launch architecture, NordSpace is uniquely positioned to compete for and support national security, civil, and commercial missions requiring responsive and reliable launch from Canadian soil. The Atlantic Spaceport Complex offers a set of unmatched capabilities: ✅ Widest range of nominal launch inclinations in Canada from 44 to 105 degrees over the Atlantic Ocean, enabling access to polar, sun-synchronous, mid-inclination, and select equatorial trajectories ✅ Positioned 5+ km (extendable to 10+ km) from the nearest town with 6,000 acre buffer zone, enabling the safe operation of medium-lift and future heavy-lift launch vehicles by offering the largest safety distances of any launch site in Canada ✅ Approved for an initial ramp up to 20 launches per year, offering the greatest cadence of launches in Canada ✅ Supported by nearby seaports, airports, and highway infrastructure, providing multiple logistics pathways for launch vehicles and payloads For NordSpace, the ASX is a foundational element of our end-to-end launch strategy and a direct extension of our launch vehicles. Internalizing spaceport operations enables more efficient and scalable mission execution, guaranteed schedule and range control, enhanced reliability with redundant infrastructure, and reduced launch costs, all while allowing us to capture greater value across the launch supply chain. NordSpace's responsive launch vehicles under development comprise light-lift Tundra (1,100 kg), Tundra+ extension to medium-lift (2,000+ kg), and future reusable medium-lift Tempest (5,000+ kg LEO). National Defence Defence Research and Development Canada Canadian Space Agency ISED Transport Canada Government of Newfoundland & Labrador

Progress at NordSpace's Atlantic Spaceport Complex (ASX) in Newfoundland and Labrador is moving quickly both at SLC-01 and SLC-02 in preparation for Tundra’s orbital launch as early as 2028 and ahead of our first of several planned Taiga suborbital launches starting soon. SLC-01 is the site of our orbital launch pads, sized to scale to reusable medium-lift and larger vehicles. SLC-02 is the site for light-lift and suborbital launches, and as seen in this video, pad and site upgrades are in progress. Taiga launching will mark the first ever commercial liquid rocket launch in Canadian history, and is being specifically upgraded and engineered by a small team at NordSpace to fly often and retire risk for our orbital vehicle with successive missions for Tundra including in propulsion, manufacturing, structures, licensing, day-of-launch operations, flight termination, avionics, active controls, and more. SLC-01’s road tender closed earlier this week, and we are in the process of reviewing the bids. Critical design elements of SLC-01 are being finalized to maximize capability, interoperability, and safety this summer to achieve initial operational readiness by 2027. With an approved spaceport integrated into our vertically aligned launch architecture, NordSpace is uniquely positioned to compete for and support national security, civil, and commercial missions requiring responsive and reliable launch from Canadian soil. The Atlantic Spaceport Complex offers a set of unmatched capabilities: ✅ Widest range of nominal launch inclinations in Canada from 44 to 105 degrees over the Atlantic Ocean, enabling access to polar, sun-synchronous, mid-inclination, and select equatorial trajectories ✅ Positioned 5+ km (extendable to 10+ km) from the nearest town with 6,000 acre buffer zone, enabling the safe operation of medium-lift and future heavy-lift launch vehicles by offering the largest safety distances of any launch site in Canada ✅ Approved for an initial ramp up to 20 launches per year, offering the greatest cadence of launches in Canada ✅ Supported by nearby seaports, airports, and highway infrastructure, providing multiple logistics pathways for launch vehicles and payloads For NordSpace, the ASX is a foundational element of our end-to-end launch strategy and a direct extension of our launch vehicles. Internalizing spaceport operations enables more efficient and scalable mission execution, guaranteed schedule and range control, enhanced reliability with redundant infrastructure, and reduced launch costs, all while allowing us to capture greater value across the launch supply chain. NordSpace's responsive launch vehicles under development comprise light-lift Tundra (1,100 kg), Tundra+ extension to medium-lift (2,000+ kg), and future reusable medium-lift Tempest (5,000+ kg LEO). National Defence Defence Research and Development Canada Canadian Space Agency ISED Transport Canada Government of Newfoundland & Labrador

NordSpace 🇨🇦

15,392 Aufrufe • vor 2 Monaten

Hey Canada, we have a spaceport! 🇨🇦🚀 NordSpace's beautiful Atlantic Spaceport Complex (ASX) is officially under construction outside the town of St. Lawrence, in Newfoundland and Labrador! With our first launch of a Canadian commercial rocket from a Canadian commercial spaceport set to take flight in the coming weeks, the future of a true sovereign capability for assured access to space has never looked so promising. We're thrilled to share footage of ASX's SLC-02 publicly for the first time. ASX will support NordSpace’s first commercial launch of our Taiga suborbital rocket with Taiga's launch window opening on August 25th 2025. Taiga is powered by the company’s proprietary 3D-printed Hadfield Mk III liquid rocket engine, and the mission is named "Getting Screeched In". The launch window is subject to road and power interruptions due to the ongoing state of emergency in Newfoundland and Labrador. This launch follows a series of successful tests, including a fully integrated rocket test and a month-long qualification campaign for the Hadfield Mk III engine. Both demonstrated rapid refurbishment capabilities and turnarounds between tests, paving the way for reusable and cost-effective launch operations from Canadian soil. ASX is designed to support our Tundra orbital launch vehicle and partner launch vehicles, facilitating a wide range of orbital and suborbital missions situated at a 46 degree latitude. The initial $10M phase of development for the Atlantic Spaceport Complex will feature two sites: 🚀 SLC-01 will feature two launch pads for orbital missions including NordSpace’s Tundra vehicle and international launch partners from the U.S. and Europe. 🚀 SLC-02 will consist of at least one smaller launch pad for suborbital missions, radar systems for vehicle tracking and space domain awareness, and other ground support equipment to enable all launch operations at the ASX. The ASX will also support NordSpace’s broader portfolio, including our SHARP (Supersonic and Hypersonic Applications Research Platform) program. NordSpace’s CEO and founder, Rahul Goel, said, “The start of construction at the Atlantic Spaceport Complex is a seminal moment for Canada. This is not just about building a launch site; it’s about building a future where Canada leads in space exploration, innovation, and security. The ASX is critical national infrastructure that will unlock assured access to space, ensuring our sovereignty and fostering economic growth for generations. We are committed to making the vision of a true sovereign end-to-end space missions capability a reality, and today’s groundbreaking is a testament to our team’s relentless dedication, speed, and capability.” We thank Government of Newfoundland & Labrador, Transport Canada, National Defence, Canadian Space Agency and NAV CANADA for their support.

Hey Canada, we have a spaceport! 🇨🇦🚀 NordSpace's beautiful Atlantic Spaceport Complex (ASX) is officially under construction outside the town of St. Lawrence, in Newfoundland and Labrador! With our first launch of a Canadian commercial rocket from a Canadian commercial spaceport set to take flight in the coming weeks, the future of a true sovereign capability for assured access to space has never looked so promising. We're thrilled to share footage of ASX's SLC-02 publicly for the first time. ASX will support NordSpace’s first commercial launch of our Taiga suborbital rocket with Taiga's launch window opening on August 25th 2025. Taiga is powered by the company’s proprietary 3D-printed Hadfield Mk III liquid rocket engine, and the mission is named "Getting Screeched In". The launch window is subject to road and power interruptions due to the ongoing state of emergency in Newfoundland and Labrador. This launch follows a series of successful tests, including a fully integrated rocket test and a month-long qualification campaign for the Hadfield Mk III engine. Both demonstrated rapid refurbishment capabilities and turnarounds between tests, paving the way for reusable and cost-effective launch operations from Canadian soil. ASX is designed to support our Tundra orbital launch vehicle and partner launch vehicles, facilitating a wide range of orbital and suborbital missions situated at a 46 degree latitude. The initial $10M phase of development for the Atlantic Spaceport Complex will feature two sites: 🚀 SLC-01 will feature two launch pads for orbital missions including NordSpace’s Tundra vehicle and international launch partners from the U.S. and Europe. 🚀 SLC-02 will consist of at least one smaller launch pad for suborbital missions, radar systems for vehicle tracking and space domain awareness, and other ground support equipment to enable all launch operations at the ASX. The ASX will also support NordSpace’s broader portfolio, including our SHARP (Supersonic and Hypersonic Applications Research Platform) program. NordSpace’s CEO and founder, Rahul Goel, said, “The start of construction at the Atlantic Spaceport Complex is a seminal moment for Canada. This is not just about building a launch site; it’s about building a future where Canada leads in space exploration, innovation, and security. The ASX is critical national infrastructure that will unlock assured access to space, ensuring our sovereignty and fostering economic growth for generations. We are committed to making the vision of a true sovereign end-to-end space missions capability a reality, and today’s groundbreaking is a testament to our team’s relentless dedication, speed, and capability.” We thank Government of Newfoundland & Labrador, Transport Canada, National Defence, Canadian Space Agency and NAV CANADA for their support.

NordSpace 🇨🇦

65,478 Aufrufe • vor 1 Jahr

Canada's first orbital-class rocket engine is now being manufactured! Our patent pending Hadfield-150 engine is the largest and most powerful rocket engine ever built in Canada, and the first known Canadian orbital-class engine to make it to this stage. The Hadfield-150 builds on everything we learned after years of painstakingly designing, manufacturing, and testing the Hadfield-10 series, our first regeneratively cooled and additively manufactured liquid rocket engine. Every engine test, both successful and unsuccessful on our Darkhorse test stand at Area 66, retired risk that's now carried straight into Hadfield-150 and sovereign orbital launch for Canada. A few details about the Hadfield-150 engine series: ✅ Designed to power Tundra and Tundra+, our light and medium-lift launch vehicles, and built to scale to Tempest, our larger reusable medium lift vehicle ✅ Manufactured entirely in-house, from design to print to test, for true sovereign launch capability ✅ Produced at Rocket Factory 1, on our expanding fleet of metal additive manufacturing systems at the AMA Lab, including the largest known metal 3D printer in Canada ✅ Designed for reusability and medium-lift scale from the outset, and built to significantly cut the time, infrastructure, manufacturing and cost iterative engine testing usually requires, with room to scale to even larger engines by leveraging the same design ✅ Capable of engine-out functionality, so losing one on an early flight doesn't have to mean losing the mission ✅ Optimized for Canada's Launch the North initiative, to deliver sovereign operational capability in a time and cost efficient manner Initial testing starts later this year at our new Blackhawk orbital engine test cell at Area 66, our private test range in Ontario. Stacked, integrated vehicle testing comes later at the Atlantic Spaceport Complex, our spaceport in Newfoundland and Labrador. Stay tuned for some exciting and fiery milestones ahead! 🚀🇨🇦 National Defence Defence Research and Development Canada Canadian Space Agency Transport Canada NGen Canada

Canada's first orbital-class rocket engine is now being manufactured! Our patent pending Hadfield-150 engine is the largest and most powerful rocket engine ever built in Canada, and the first known Canadian orbital-class engine to make it to this stage. The Hadfield-150 builds on everything we learned after years of painstakingly designing, manufacturing, and testing the Hadfield-10 series, our first regeneratively cooled and additively manufactured liquid rocket engine. Every engine test, both successful and unsuccessful on our Darkhorse test stand at Area 66, retired risk that's now carried straight into Hadfield-150 and sovereign orbital launch for Canada. A few details about the Hadfield-150 engine series: ✅ Designed to power Tundra and Tundra+, our light and medium-lift launch vehicles, and built to scale to Tempest, our larger reusable medium lift vehicle ✅ Manufactured entirely in-house, from design to print to test, for true sovereign launch capability ✅ Produced at Rocket Factory 1, on our expanding fleet of metal additive manufacturing systems at the AMA Lab, including the largest known metal 3D printer in Canada ✅ Designed for reusability and medium-lift scale from the outset, and built to significantly cut the time, infrastructure, manufacturing and cost iterative engine testing usually requires, with room to scale to even larger engines by leveraging the same design ✅ Capable of engine-out functionality, so losing one on an early flight doesn't have to mean losing the mission ✅ Optimized for Canada's Launch the North initiative, to deliver sovereign operational capability in a time and cost efficient manner Initial testing starts later this year at our new Blackhawk orbital engine test cell at Area 66, our private test range in Ontario. Stacked, integrated vehicle testing comes later at the Atlantic Spaceport Complex, our spaceport in Newfoundland and Labrador. Stay tuned for some exciting and fiery milestones ahead! 🚀🇨🇦 National Defence Defence Research and Development Canada Canadian Space Agency Transport Canada NGen Canada

NordSpace 🇨🇦

27,693 Aufrufe • vor 1 Monat

Here's Elon Musk back in 2010 announcing that SpaceX is going to try to build a fully and rapidly reusable orbit-class rocket. “The pivotal breakthrough that's necessary, that some company has to come up with to make life multiplanetary is a fully and rapidly reusable orbit-class rocket. This is a very difficult thing to do because we live on a planet where that is just barely possible. If gravity were a little lower, it would be easy. If it was a little higher, it would be impossible. Even for an expendable launch vehicle where you don't attempt any recovery, you get maybe 2% to 3% of your liftoff weight to orbit. Now you say, okay, let's make it reusable. Which means you've got to strengthen the stages, you've got to add a lot of weight, a lot of thermal protection, you've got to do a lot of things that add weight to that vehicle and still have a useful payload to orbit. Now, you're saying, of that meager 2% to 3% and maybe if you're really good, get it to 4%, you've got to add all that's necessary to bring the rocket stages back to the launchpad and be able to refly them and still have useful payloads to orbit. So, a very difficult thing. This has been attempted many times in the past and generally what's happened is when people have concluded that success was not one of the possible outcomes then the project's been abandoned. It's just a very tough engineering problem. It wasn't something that I thought I wasn't sure it could be solved, for a while, but then relatively recently, probably in the last 12 months or so, I've come to the conclusion that it can be solved. And I think SpaceX is going to try to do it. We could fail. I'm not saying we're certain of success here, but we're going to try to do it. We have a design that on paper, doing the calculations, doing the simulations, it does work. And now we need to make sure that those simulations and reality agree because generally when they don't, reality wins.” National Press Club, September 29, 2010

Here's Elon Musk back in 2010 announcing that SpaceX is going to try to build a fully and rapidly reusable orbit-class rocket. “The pivotal breakthrough that's necessary, that some company has to come up with to make life multiplanetary is a fully and rapidly reusable orbit-class rocket. This is a very difficult thing to do because we live on a planet where that is just barely possible. If gravity were a little lower, it would be easy. If it was a little higher, it would be impossible. Even for an expendable launch vehicle where you don't attempt any recovery, you get maybe 2% to 3% of your liftoff weight to orbit. Now you say, okay, let's make it reusable. Which means you've got to strengthen the stages, you've got to add a lot of weight, a lot of thermal protection, you've got to do a lot of things that add weight to that vehicle and still have a useful payload to orbit. Now, you're saying, of that meager 2% to 3% and maybe if you're really good, get it to 4%, you've got to add all that's necessary to bring the rocket stages back to the launchpad and be able to refly them and still have useful payloads to orbit. So, a very difficult thing. This has been attempted many times in the past and generally what's happened is when people have concluded that success was not one of the possible outcomes then the project's been abandoned. It's just a very tough engineering problem. It wasn't something that I thought I wasn't sure it could be solved, for a while, but then relatively recently, probably in the last 12 months or so, I've come to the conclusion that it can be solved. And I think SpaceX is going to try to do it. We could fail. I'm not saying we're certain of success here, but we're going to try to do it. We have a design that on paper, doing the calculations, doing the simulations, it does work. And now we need to make sure that those simulations and reality agree because generally when they don't, reality wins.” National Press Club, September 29, 2010

ELON CLIPS

14,920 Aufrufe • vor 1 Jahr

NEWS: A CNN panelist from Brownsville tore into Elon Musk for trashing her local beaches, right as the chyron behind her called him the world's first trillionaire. To be clear, SpaceX runs Starbase under federal and state environmental oversight and coordinates with the wildlife agencies on the refuge around it. The beach is only closed for launches and tests. It reopens the moment the operation ends. It is accessible by public. Also, here is what SpaceX did. ~ Reached orbit as the first privately built liquid-fuel rocket, back in 2008 ~ Built and landed the first orbital rocket booster, reflew it and made reusable rockets normal ~ First private company to send a spacecraft to the space station ~ First private company to fly humans to orbit, ending US reliance on Russian rockets in 2020 ~ Brought home the two astronauts Boeing's Starliner left stranded in space ~ Flew the first commercial spacewalk ~ Caught a returning Super Heavy booster out of the sky with the launch tower ~ Built Starship, the largest and most powerful rocket ever flown ~ Was picked by NASA to land its astronauts back on the Moon ~ Put up the largest satellite network in history and beamed internet to millions, including disaster zones ~ Launches more often and lifts more to orbit than the rest of the world combined She is upset about the beach, but SpaceX is serving humanity and will make humans a multi-planetary species. To get something you want, you have to let go of something you want.

NEWS: A CNN panelist from Brownsville tore into Elon Musk for trashing her local beaches, right as the chyron behind her called him the world's first trillionaire. To be clear, SpaceX runs Starbase under federal and state environmental oversight and coordinates with the wildlife agencies on the refuge around it. The beach is only closed for launches and tests. It reopens the moment the operation ends. It is accessible by public. Also, here is what SpaceX did. ~ Reached orbit as the first privately built liquid-fuel rocket, back in 2008 ~ Built and landed the first orbital rocket booster, reflew it and made reusable rockets normal ~ First private company to send a spacecraft to the space station ~ First private company to fly humans to orbit, ending US reliance on Russian rockets in 2020 ~ Brought home the two astronauts Boeing's Starliner left stranded in space ~ Flew the first commercial spacewalk ~ Caught a returning Super Heavy booster out of the sky with the launch tower ~ Built Starship, the largest and most powerful rocket ever flown ~ Was picked by NASA to land its astronauts back on the Moon ~ Put up the largest satellite network in history and beamed internet to millions, including disaster zones ~ Launches more often and lifts more to orbit than the rest of the world combined She is upset about the beach, but SpaceX is serving humanity and will make humans a multi-planetary species. To get something you want, you have to let go of something you want.

Muskonomy

11,669 Aufrufe • vor 2 Monaten

Elon Musk just explained why the SpaceX IPO is an energy story and the energy constraint is why he believes space becomes the only viable path for AI to scale (Save this). The argument he is making is one of the most important and least understood things happening in technology right now. The United States currently consumes roughly 500 gigawatts of electricity on average. To double that capacity which is what continued AI expansion on the current terrestrial trajectory would eventually require would mean building as many power plants as currently exist in the entire country. He is not arguing that this is technically impossible, just that communities are not willing to accept it, that permitting timelines make it unrealistic, and that the hard ceiling on Earth based power generation means the expansion of AI compute will eventually hit a wall that no amount of capital can overcome on the ground. His observation is that in space, that wall does not exist. A solar panel in orbit produces roughly five times more power than the same panel on Earth, operates in continuous sunlight uninterrupted by weather or nighttime, and benefits from the vacuum of space as a completely passive cooling system meaning the two largest operating costs of any terrestrial data center, energy and cooling, are effectively eliminated. He then said that you could theoretically increase harnessed energy by a factor of one million and still be using less than a millionth of the sun's total energy output. This is the underlying physics of why SpaceX filed with the FCC to launch up to one million solar powered AI satellites, and why they described that constellation in their own filing as a first step toward becoming a Kardashev Type II civilization capable of harnessing the full power of the sun. To understand what makes this credible rather than visionary, you need to understand what SpaceX already controls that no other company on earth possesses. Starship, once operating at full cadence, can deliver 100 to 150 tons of payload to orbit per launch, at a target cost per kilogram that is an order of magnitude lower than any existing vehicle. Musk's stated ambition is to scale Starship to 10,000 to 30,000 launches per year, a frequency that would allow the deployment of orbital compute infrastructure at a pace that is currently unimaginable with any existing rocket. He told xAI staff earlier this year that achieving space-based AI at scale will eventually require manufacturing facilities on the moon, building solar panels and heat dissipation structures from lunar silicon and aluminum, and launching them into orbit from there rather than from Earth's surface because the moon's lower gravity makes the economics of launch dramatically more favorable. SpaceX's S-1 filing explicitly states that its launch capabilities could enable massive AI compute satellite constellations with the potential for millions of satellites for orbital data centers, with the first launch potentially occurring as soon as 2028. Google and Alphabet are already in advanced talks with SpaceX about deploying space-based data centers. Starcloud, a startup running Nvidia H100 GPUs in orbit, has already validated that high-performance AI inference workloads can operate in space, with plans to scale to five gigawatts of orbital compute power by 2035. This is why Musk believes the cost crossover happens in two to three years because SpaceX's launch cost trajectory intersects with the accelerating energy constraint on the ground in a way that makes space genuinely cheaper, faster, and less regulated at exactly the moment AI demand is hitting its hardest physical limits.

Elon Musk just explained why the SpaceX IPO is an energy story and the energy constraint is why he believes space becomes the only viable path for AI to scale (Save this). The argument he is making is one of the most important and least understood things happening in technology right now. The United States currently consumes roughly 500 gigawatts of electricity on average. To double that capacity which is what continued AI expansion on the current terrestrial trajectory would eventually require would mean building as many power plants as currently exist in the entire country. He is not arguing that this is technically impossible, just that communities are not willing to accept it, that permitting timelines make it unrealistic, and that the hard ceiling on Earth based power generation means the expansion of AI compute will eventually hit a wall that no amount of capital can overcome on the ground. His observation is that in space, that wall does not exist. A solar panel in orbit produces roughly five times more power than the same panel on Earth, operates in continuous sunlight uninterrupted by weather or nighttime, and benefits from the vacuum of space as a completely passive cooling system meaning the two largest operating costs of any terrestrial data center, energy and cooling, are effectively eliminated. He then said that you could theoretically increase harnessed energy by a factor of one million and still be using less than a millionth of the sun's total energy output. This is the underlying physics of why SpaceX filed with the FCC to launch up to one million solar powered AI satellites, and why they described that constellation in their own filing as a first step toward becoming a Kardashev Type II civilization capable of harnessing the full power of the sun. To understand what makes this credible rather than visionary, you need to understand what SpaceX already controls that no other company on earth possesses. Starship, once operating at full cadence, can deliver 100 to 150 tons of payload to orbit per launch, at a target cost per kilogram that is an order of magnitude lower than any existing vehicle. Musk's stated ambition is to scale Starship to 10,000 to 30,000 launches per year, a frequency that would allow the deployment of orbital compute infrastructure at a pace that is currently unimaginable with any existing rocket. He told xAI staff earlier this year that achieving space-based AI at scale will eventually require manufacturing facilities on the moon, building solar panels and heat dissipation structures from lunar silicon and aluminum, and launching them into orbit from there rather than from Earth's surface because the moon's lower gravity makes the economics of launch dramatically more favorable. SpaceX's S-1 filing explicitly states that its launch capabilities could enable massive AI compute satellite constellations with the potential for millions of satellites for orbital data centers, with the first launch potentially occurring as soon as 2028. Google and Alphabet are already in advanced talks with SpaceX about deploying space-based data centers. Starcloud, a startup running Nvidia H100 GPUs in orbit, has already validated that high-performance AI inference workloads can operate in space, with plans to scale to five gigawatts of orbital compute power by 2035. This is why Musk believes the cost crossover happens in two to three years because SpaceX's launch cost trajectory intersects with the accelerating energy constraint on the ground in a way that makes space genuinely cheaper, faster, and less regulated at exactly the moment AI demand is hitting its hardest physical limits.

Milk Road AI

12,738 Aufrufe • vor 3 Monaten