Starship’s path to reusability looks murky after SpaceX’s S-1
Key takeaways
- Space X s recent IPO and Starship rocket test flight delivered two big data points that offer a realistic vision for the coming years — and one that may disappoint both the company s boosters and its critics.
- Space X is many businesses, but right now only one is producing significant revenue.
- But underneath, you can see the capital expenditure treadmill that scared previous entrepreneurs away from this model.
Space X s recent IPO and Starship rocket test flight delivered two big data points that offer a realistic vision for the coming years — and one that may disappoint both the company s boosters and its critics.
Hidden behind the fantastic expectations for AI enterprise profits and plans for a Moon base is a more grounded reality: an expendable Starship could keep Space X in business, but doesn t achieve the cost reductions — or frontier business models — Elon Musk is betting on.
Space X is many businesses, but right now only one is producing significant revenue. Starlink, its satellite communications network, is the tent-pole of the firm s public offering. The top line is fairly incredible; SpaceX s connectivity business generated $11.4 billion in revenue last year, the bulk of the company s earnings.