Of Thomas Black*

If there were doubts about SpaceX’s dominance in space, they were dissolved after the almost flawless test of the huge starship missile late on Tuesday.

Following a series of failures, including a spectacular explosion on the June launch platform, SpaceX achieved all the milestones of the 10th test launch of the rocket. Starship has shown that it has the ability to recover both the promoter and the useful load of the spacecraft, proving that it will be fully reusable.

Perhaps it is a pure coincidence but Spacex improved the boat after the Masculine He had a total reinstatement of his business after his controversial term as the “brain” behind the Government’s Ministry of Efficiency (Doge). Musk moved about one -fifth of the Falcon 9 engineers team to help Starship, according to a Bloomberg News report. This is the kind of decision that must come from the top.

Older space companies, manufactured from rocket launchers to satellite operators, have realized that Starship is on the verge of launching it and that the cost of heavy duty missile launches is to be reduced. The increased ability of cheap satellite launch will extend its leading position even more Starlink In the market – of SpaceX’s satellite internet company. The money already entered from the sale of high -speed internet customers in the countryside and anything moving – airplanes, ships, caravans, etc. – They will help fund Musk’s dream of sending people to Mars.

Lockheed Martin Boeing, and other older rocket manufacturers are even further back technologically, since SpaceX has shown that a fully reusable starship can work.

The second stage of the Starship survived during its reassurance, although the tiles that function as thermal shield were removed and tested new ones. A endurance test provided a bright spectacle as the fins of the spacecraft reached their limits.

After heading rushing to the Earth at a speed of more than 25,000 kilometers per hour, the boat slowed down below the speed of sound shortly before it turned off and then triggered three engines to hover for a while above the Indian Ocean. The spaceship then sank slowly into troubled water as a buoy that turns slowly.

During the launches, this spaceship will land on an unmanned boat, while the spaceship promoter will grab giant mechanical tongs on the launch platform, something Spacex has shown in previous tests.

During this last test, the rocket used a variety of engines for data collection as they hovered over the water right off the coast of Texas before sinking into the sea. These two pieces make the rocket fully reusable, a technology that has already revolutionized the launches in space, Technology that Boeing and Lockheed do not have.

For satellite operators, especially Eutelsat Communications SA, the most impressive aspect of the test was the moment when the so -called PEZ distributor launched eight Starlink satellites. This is the robotic system of the spacecraft that moves a stack of flat satellites to their place and then pushes them one by one via a slit at a minute’s rhythm. Starship will have the ability to develop 60 of these satellites, several times above the capacity of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.

What should cause shudder in the industry is that these virtual satellites are the same size and weight as a third generation of the most capable low -track satellites on the Earth made by Spacex. The Earth’s low -orbit networks are the future of the business, and SpaceX dominates this space.

Starlink has developed 8,000 low orbit around the Earth. Its closest competitor, Eutelsat, has 650. What is indicative is that the last batch of 20 satellites launched by the European company was transferred from a Falcon 9 rocket.

Physics gives the low -track satellites around the Earth a great speed, because they are about 550 kilometers from Earth, much closer to the large geosy -timers 35,800 kilometers away. Earth’s low orbit satellites are also smaller and less expensive than large geostatics. The problem is that these small satellites do not move synchronized with the Earth, which means that many of them are essential for covering. They also have a shorter life span, which requires constant launches to replenish and construct the network.

Eutelsat has announced that it will raise 1.5 billion euros from investors and Governments of France and the United Kingdom to develop the Earth’s low -track network, which will offset the reduction in sales in its older sector. Sales from the Earth’s low orbit sector increased by 84% for the year ended in June, while the company’s content (video) revenue, which is about half of the company’s $ 1.2 billion annual sales and fed by 6.5%.

Although Eutelsat cannot compete with Starlink in terms of capacity and honor, it has a large market position, as it does not belong to the US and, more specifically, does not belong to an unpredictable and volatile billionaire.

“Eutelsat holds a unique position as a space connectivity champion in Europe in changing geopolitical environments”said CEO Jean-Francois Fallacher at a teleconference for the financial results in early August.

When Starship launches commercial flights, SpaceX’s cost curve will decrease even further, and the capacity for its network growth will increase. Musk has spoken For a network of tens of thousands of satellites to provide general coverage for high -speed internet.

The power of the network is more evident in Ukraine, where Starlink has helped not to flood the nation by Russia. The service has set up a Ukrainian techniques who have learned how to repair and harden to deal with the Starlink soil equipment recorded by the internet. The success of the Starship test brings Musk’s dream to reach Mars closer to reality. More directly and closer to Earth, this means that Starship will soon launch satellites all over the sky, which will raise the money needed to finance this dream.

The power of the network is more evident in Ukraine, where Starlink has helped to prevent Russia from conquering the country. The service has created an ecosystem of Ukrainian techniques that have learned to repair and strengthen the Starlink equipment that captures the internet signal for battle. The success of the Starship test brings Musk’s dream to reach Mars closer to reality. More directly and closer to the earth, this means that Starship will be filled soon with satellites All the sky, who will raise the money they need to finance this dream.

*Thomas Black is a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion and writes about industry and transport sectors. He was previously a journalist at Bloomberg News and covered issues of logistics, processing and civil aviation.