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1/ Gwynne Shotwell: "The total addressable market for launch, with a conservative outlook on commercial human passengers, is probably about $6 billion. But the addressable market for global broadband is $1 trillion."
SpaceX is a communications business. http://interactive.satellitetoday.com/via/may-2021/a-conversation-with-gwynne-shotwell-2020-satellite-executive-of-the-year/">https://interactive.satellitetoday.com/via/may-2...
SpaceX is a communications business. http://interactive.satellitetoday.com/via/may-2021/a-conversation-with-gwynne-shotwell-2020-satellite-executive-of-the-year/">https://interactive.satellitetoday.com/via/may-2...
2/ Shotwell: "Starlink is best set up to serve rural villages and the rural population. We can do work in the city, but you can& #39;t put enough bandwidth down in a city to cover any sort of percentage of consumers in that cell." We want Starlink to look like consumer electronics."
3/ Shotwell; "We are definitely focused on consumer first. Not that we& #39;re not looking at enterprise markets — we definitely are. But the priority and emphasis are always on the consumer."
Consumer markets not served by fiber are a vastly bigger total addressable market.
Consumer markets not served by fiber are a vastly bigger total addressable market.
4/ Shotwell: "I have a harder time seeing SpaceX as a public company. The business is too lumpy. We invest so much in R&D — large double digits. The markets don& #39;t love that. I don& #39;t see SpaceX making sense as a public company right now. But Starlink could make sense."
5/ Because launching rockets is so sexy and cool it causes people to ignore that the biggest markets enabled by space are on the ground. Rocket launch is a $5 billion dollar business. SpaceX is making it cheaper. Ground equipment for satellites is a $130 billion dollar business.
6/ Wait! Are you saying that the big markets are what these very cool rocket launches enable and not the launch business itself? Like user terminals? This is unquestionably true.
7/ Wait! Does that mean that SpaceX& #39;s expenditures will overwhelmingly happen and involve equipment on Earth rather than in space? Yes.
8/ Wait! What devices can& #39;t be served with two way communications by fiber and will need ubiquitous access to connectivity ? Maybe devices that have wheels that "go round and round"? Planes, trains and automobiles?
9/ Test flight of Starship SN15 is not happening today. SN16 is being built now (picture from today). Since the goal of SpaceX is to make thousands of Starships, there& #39;s focus on low cost production. If another low volume expendable rocket is a jobs program, it has a BIG problem.
