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johnla t1_j24ssck wrote

Reply to comment by FlatRobots in SpaceX launches 54 upgraded Starlink internet satellites and nails rocket landing at sea in 60th flight of the year by ovirt001

What are you looking at? They have over 1 million Starlink subscribers. They charge $100/month. That's $100M each month. 2020 article from Forbes said they earn $80M per launch. They're profitable right now. But to your point they spent crazy amounts of money. They're not worried about cashflow right now though.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2020/06/02/revisiting-spacexs-36-billion-valuation-after-its-first-manned-mission/

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VinceSamios t1_j2557hn wrote

What they charge for a launch, and what it costs space for a launch, are veeeery different numbers.

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NotShey t1_j2781ip wrote

What do you mean? Their costs are so much lower than everyone else's that they can pretty much charge whatever they feel like and people will pay it. You're not suggesting they are launching at a loss are you?

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VinceSamios t1_j27ud30 wrote

Definitely not at a loss. I'd be surprised if launch costs including satellites was more than £20m per launch. They're mass manufacturing satellite's, they're reusing rockets, etc.

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johnla t1_j27hf6f wrote

According Elon and other SpaceX guy, they suggest their cost is in the $10M range. Even if we double it to $20M. They still profit $47M since they charge $67M per launch.

I know there are tons of upfront costs of building those rockets. They’ve reused them so often now that I’m pretty sure they have paid for themselves a couple times over now.

Source for Launch cost: https://www.science.org/content/article/spacex-now-dominates-rocket-flight-bringing-big-benefits-and-risks-nasa

Source for launch price: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/23/spacex-raises-prices-for-launches-and-starlink-due-to-inflation.html

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FlatRobots t1_j2bgsfa wrote

I don't get it. Why do they earn money with launches when they put their own satellites into orbit? Where does that money come from? Not a "gotcha", I genuinely don't get it.

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johnla t1_j2ci9gw wrote

Their satellites provide Internet service which they sell.

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