Small satellite sector should prepare for Starship - SpaceNews

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – Small satellite manufacturers should prepare for the emergence of rideshare flights on the SpaceX Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy launch vehicle, according to panelists speaking Feb. 7 at the SmallSat Symposium here.

“When the first Transporter mission started going, the number of smallsats launched on small launchers just fell off a cliff,” said Fletcher Franklin, BryceTech senior program manager.

At the same time, Shalini Bhatia, Deloitte Consulting principal, said “Growth in services provided by smallsats hyperscales with manufacturing and high-capacity launch.”

“The best defense of smallsat launch capability might be monopolist prices,” said Ward Hanson, Stanford University lecturer in economics.

“If SpaceX prices Starship capacity at some constant relationship to costs, then [small launch operators] will be in a world of hurt.”

Tagged: Small launch vehicles, SpaceX, Starship Debra Werner is a correspondent for SpaceNews based in San Francisco.