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Comment by bloudermilk | Hacker News Reader

Wild! Does that count their own Starlink payloads? Curious what this number looks like when you only look at the launch customer market.

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Meta point: why does that matter? They launch 90% of the demand for payload to orbit. Some of that demand is from a vertically integrated part of the company. It is still part of industrial demand, given that Starlink is profitable already.

The launch count of SpaceX per year compared to the rest of the world is quite large.

SpaceX in 2025 has launched 134 times. Everyone else in the entire world has launched 115 times combined, including other US companies. SpaceX launches a lot of stuff very often.

EDIT: Originally meant to do 2024 but accidentally read the wrong bar. Regardless, this holds for most years.

142 F9 launches, 72% Starlink.

> Curious what this number looks like when you only look at the launch customer market

SpaceX makes 50%+ margins on its launches, which are booked out years in advance, for a reason.

> booked out

How so ?

F9 launches are available anytime a customer wants them. SpaceX will bump down a Starlink launch to accommodate a paying customer, All they would really need would be the payload assembly time?

They're booked out years in advance only in the sense that bookings are sorted out years before the payload is ready to fly. SpaceX has emphasized that they're capable of swapping out Starlink launches with a commercial payload if needed on short notice.

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