Space launch market competition

Space launch market competition is the manifestation of <a href="/facts/Market_forces/6RfCU3fH">market forces</a> in the <a href="/facts/Launch_service_provider/zAIh2zt4">launch service provider</a> business. In particular it is the trend of <a href="/facts/Competition_(economics)/zscsQx5l">competitive dynamics</a> among <a href="/facts/Space_transport/zPrnATzo">payload transport</a> capabilities at diverse <a href="/facts/Price/yWQ8edfN">prices</a> having a greater influence on launch purchasing than the traditional political considerations of country of manufacture or the national entity using, <a href="/facts/Regulatory_agency/VXSrsDSM">regulating</a> or <a href="/facts/License/xaP3U6ga">licensing</a> the launch service.
Following the <a href="/facts/Space_Age/48vLk51b">advent of spaceflight technology</a> in the late 1950s, space <a href="/facts/Space_launch/tLEQD7vf">launch services</a> came into being, exclusively by <a href="/facts/Nation_state/1T5FVEJP">national</a> programs. Later in the 20th century commercial operators became important customers of launch providers. International competition for the <a href="/facts/Communications_satellites/y5RXPMDT">communications satellite</a> payload subset of the launch market was increasingly influenced by commercial considerations. However, even during this period, for both commercial- and government-entity-launched <a href="/facts/Commsat/y5RXPMDT">commsats</a>, the launch service providers for these payloads used launch vehicles built to government specifications, and with state-provided development funding exclusively.
In the early 2010s, five decades after humans first developed spaceflight technology, <a href="/facts/Private_spaceflight/9rSz8Lhh">privately-developed</a> launch vehicle systems and space launch service offerings emerged. Companies now faced economic incentives rather than the principally political incentives of the earlier decades. The space launch business experienced a dramatic lowering of per-unit prices along with the addition of entirely new capabilities, bringing about a new phase of competition in the space launch market.
In 2024 it was reported that, counting all global spaceflight and launch activity, <a href="/facts/SpaceX/2tKHsVdJ">SpaceX</a>, utilizing its <a href="/facts/Falcon_9/mNck6vby">Falcon family of rockets</a> had launched close to 87% of all upmass on Earth in the year 2023.

Space launch market competition open-in-new

Space launch market competition