Their goal of rapid manufacturing and frequent launches seems laudable in an expendable launch vehicle world. I’m not sure how they plan to survive when SpaceX and Blue Origin achieve rapid reusability though.
Could be a successful business niche, but it doesn’t seem likely to revolutionize anything.
Since SpaceX is late to fulfill orders, having more options for smaller payloads is probably a pretty good idea even if the market is smaller.
Specifically, RL is ideal for a series of small satellites launched at a regular cadence to perform e.g. atmospheric studies. For this niche, booking ride shares requires booking a seat years in advance through a launch broker and then accepting whatever delays eventuate for the entire payload.
If a company or government wants to get a small satellite into space quickly or with tighter constraints on launch windows, RL will be the launcher of preference since their aim is to reduce the time from launch booking to orbital deployment. Being the only payload and customer means using the same payload adaptor each launch, which means lower integration costs. Reducing time from booking to orbit means satellites aren’t sitting in a clean room for years waiting for launch.
Launch costs measured in terms of $/kg are only part of the feasibility of a particular launch platform. It is a (very roughly) similar scenario to commuters using private vehicles rather than public transport.
Probably, a launcher of preference. There are companies that target similar niche, e.g. http://www.maritimelaunch.com/
Do you know of projections for RL future market share? I conjecture less than 5% of total satellite launch market.
So for example rather than spending $50M launching 1 x $150M satellite to slowly gather outer atmospheric studies over a period of decades, launch 50 x $3M satellites with $1M launch costs to gather more data over a shorter period of time.
How long are our careers, really? Random years-long delays are a real problem. It's easier to make a satellite really light than to wait for the cheapest price per kg.