Leading launch providers at SATELLITE 2022 shared excitement for current capabilities and the future of the industry, but tempered expectations about how many providers the market can sustain.
Tory Bruno, CEO of ULA, previewed the new Vulcan launch vehicle: “That kind of begins a new era for us. And I think for the launch industry, at large.” Lars Hoffman of Rocket Lab said the company has a full manifest projecting about one launch per month, and confirmed it would not pursue a one-ton class vehicle: “We saw all of the mega-constellations entering the market. We felt like the one ton class, plus or minus, is really not the right place to go.”
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Arianespace CEO Stephane Israel highlighted the Ariane 5’s successful James Webb Space Telescope launch but cited Ukraine-related disruptions: Arianespace suspended use of the Russian-made Soyuz ahead of a OneWeb launch due to geopolitical concerns, prompting OneWeb to sign a launch deal with SpaceX during the show.
Tom Ochinero of SpaceX said the company aimed for more than 50 launches in 2022, including five Falcon Heavy launches and at least four crewed missions, plus the first orbital Starship flight.
On market saturation, Bruno was blunt: “A few of us will continue, some of us will not. It’s pretty much as simple as that.” Hoffman agreed: “We saw that we needed to grow our launch capability into a larger vehicle.” Jarrett Jones of Blue Origin stressed reusability: “Getting to true usability, and execution regularly, and having availability for the customers, to me, is the long term gain.” VS
