Am I cynical in thinking that a lot of these firms are engineers wanting to play with VC money to built what their heart desires? Not aiming to actually going commercial, but have a lot of fun developing systems from ground up where younger engineers probably won't have the opportunity to do at more established firms? Without the need to actually have capital themselves to start, but they merely need to convince VCs to invest in them. Also in the small chance of them actually going commercial, or even getting bought out, it's not too bad of a deal IMHO. All in the meanwhile taking in salaries higher than what they were getting in a regular engineering job sounds good too.
But I really doubt founding a new rocket company and building an entirely new launch vehicle is appreciably less work than engineering grid fins...
Also in the small chance of them actually going commercial, or even getting bought out, it's not too bad of a deal IMHO. All in the meanwhile taking in salaries higher than what they were getting in a regular engineering job sounds good too.
There's a strong chance that that is part of the motivation, especially for late entrants with no real novel contribution to make. With ABL, I would fully understand a decision to leave SpaceX and start one's own company to improve pay, work hours, and autonomy. But I really doubt founding a new rocket company and building an entirely new launch vehicle is appreciably less work than engineering grid fins...
I imagine SpaceX’s backlog will continue to grow and timelines for launching as a secondary payload will continue to increase (though price will likely decrease)
Quote from: Markstark on 03/04/2018 10:30 pmI imagine SpaceX’s backlog will continue to grow and timelines for launching as a secondary payload will continue to increase (though price will likely decrease)Only if SpaceX very badly fails will their backlog grow. Betting SpaceX will fail hasn't been a good bet in the past.
If you can launch every week on average from each pad and have three launch sites (4 pads), then you can launch one or two hundred times per year and can do plenty of Starlink launches with plenty of room for anyone else. But no longer on topic.
They popped up a year or so ago, but the website features now some images of isogrid production and the team has grown to about 20 people, mostly experienced SpaceX graduates:-https://www.ablspacesystems.com/
Good find. I think this is a team that looks pretty good – they've done real things, so good luck to them. But the vehicle concept looks way too vanilla for my taste, and too small.
Quote from: HMXHMX on 12/08/2018 03:33 pmGood find. I think this is a team that looks pretty good – they've done real things, so good luck to them. But the vehicle concept looks way too vanilla for my taste, and too small.The engines are ORSC! That's hardly vanilla for a startup. You have to start somewhere. By starting small means they might actually achieve launch. Launch price is about $14M for 650 to 900 kg, depending on orbit.