Why is Falcon the first assumption?
In your opinion, what other launchers should be considered, and how do they compare?
But SpaceX would happily launch OneWeb at a reasonable price.
I have some questions about the batch of OneWeb sats which got stuck at Baikonur.In general, assuming the launch will not happen - what would be routine for returning them home?Do they have hydrazine propulsion for initial orbit raising?What they have to do with Xe tanks before transportation?
At Baikonur, work according to the schedule of the second launch day has been completed. According to the results of viewing the telemetric information, there are no comments. Everything is regular. Tomorrow morning at 10.00, at a meeting of the commission at Baikonur, a decision will be made on the advisability of continuing work with a foreign customer.https://twitter.com/Rogozin/status/1499385895434207234
Speculation: A possible problem with using F9: SpaceX any not have any spare F9 flights this year. Elon told us he was counting on Starship to launch a bunch of Starlinks, but Starship seems to be slipping. If SpaceX really needs those Starlinks as badly as Elon stated, All the F9s may be booked for 2022.How many F9 launches are possible in 2022? They are probably limited by the turnaround time of the barges, even in the likely event that Hawthorne can produce enough boosters and second stages. Furthermore, Oneweb uses polar orbits, which I think usually launch from Vandenberg.
Switching to anything other than a Soyuz would require OneWeb either design, build, and test a new mount/dispenser for the satellites or at the very least adapt the one intended for use with Soyuz. I do not know how long that would take, but several months at least seems like a reasonable guess. OneWeb was planning to complete the constellation this year, and IMO regardless of what launch vehicle /combination of launch vehicles they choose to replace Soyuz, their odds of achieving that are effectively shot.
Quote from: Jim on 03/03/2022 05:43 pmWhy is Falcon the first assumption?While many speculate about SpaceX being reluctant to help OneWeb, what are the odds that Amazon Kuiper would helpfully offer OneWeb six of their nine Atlas Vs so they can complete their constellation? Kuiper's not ready to launch this year. OneWeb is. ULA has plenty of spare launch capacity with Atlas, it's significantly underutilized at the moment. So as a reasonable and pragmatic person, Bezos stops bogarting the boosters. How believable is this outcome?
Quote from: butters on 03/03/2022 07:17 pmQuote from: Jim on 03/03/2022 05:43 pmWhy is Falcon the first assumption?While many speculate about SpaceX being reluctant to help OneWeb, what are the odds that Amazon Kuiper would helpfully offer OneWeb six of their nine Atlas Vs so they can complete their constellation? Kuiper's not ready to launch this year. OneWeb is. ULA has plenty of spare launch capacity with Atlas, it's significantly underutilized at the moment. So as a reasonable and pragmatic person, Bezos stops bogarting the boosters. How believable is this outcome?There are a limited number of RD-180s available. When those are done, Atlas V, one of the most reliable launch vehicles ever, is done. Vulcan can’t replicate that until having a longer flight history.So I doubt it. Also, Atlas V price is much higher, especially per kg to LEO.
Quote from: DanClemmensen on 03/03/2022 07:00 pmSpeculation: A possible problem with using F9: SpaceX any not have any spare F9 flights this year. Elon told us he was counting on Starship to launch a bunch of Starlinks, but Starship seems to be slipping. If SpaceX really needs those Starlinks as badly as Elon stated, All the F9s may be booked for 2022.How many F9 launches are possible in 2022? They are probably limited by the turnaround time of the barges, even in the likely event that Hawthorne can produce enough boosters and second stages. Furthermore, Oneweb uses polar orbits, which I think usually launch from Vandenberg.no Gen1/1.5 Starlinks were planned on Starship IIRC, and I think they stopped working on the Plan B of gen2 on Falcon 9, so they should in principle have ability to spool up for more launches this year. SpaceX is pretty responsive to things like this.EDIT: also, they could perhaps launch them on a smallsat launch, which often has extra capacity, like they did with those ~10 Starlinks that one time.
Quote from: Robotbeat on 03/03/2022 07:10 pmQuote from: DanClemmensen on 03/03/2022 07:00 pmSpeculation: A possible problem with using F9: SpaceX any not have any spare F9 flights this year. Elon told us he was counting on Starship to launch a bunch of Starlinks, but Starship seems to be slipping. If SpaceX really needs those Starlinks as badly as Elon stated, All the F9s may be booked for 2022.How many F9 launches are possible in 2022? They are probably limited by the turnaround time of the barges, even in the likely event that Hawthorne can produce enough boosters and second stages. Furthermore, Oneweb uses polar orbits, which I think usually launch from Vandenberg.no Gen1/1.5 Starlinks were planned on Starship IIRC, and I think they stopped working on the Plan B of gen2 on Falcon 9, so they should in principle have ability to spool up for more launches this year. SpaceX is pretty responsive to things like this.EDIT: also, they could perhaps launch them on a smallsat launch, which often has extra capacity, like they did with those ~10 Starlinks that one time.Can they book SpaceX Transporter flights? At~2 million a pop at most, which is a reasonable guess from SpaceX's web site, it would seem to be competitive with Soyuz. Am not sure about how orbits would work out squeezing them onto scheduled flights here and there? Is a funny idea to me because OneWeb can book all of the untaken spots, and because it is an open offering, SpaceX would be stepping on a monopoly land mine if they decline.
