Launch providers at SATELLITE 2024 stressed high cadence and customer responsiveness as the defining competitive factors. SpaceX VP Stephanie Bednarek said: “Higher cadence isn’t just about trying to launch as often as you can. It allows you to have more and more reliability.” SpaceX plans to continue flying Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy alongside Starship: “Between Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy and with Starship coming online, we really are able to launch anything to anywhere.”
ULA’s Mark Peller said Vulcan Centaur, which debuted in January 2024, is designed to be flexible across a wide range of customers and is seeing LEO demand “beyond what we’re expecting.”
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Arianespace CCO Steven Rutgers said the inaugural Ariane 6 flight was 90–100 days away (from mid-March), calling it “very powerful” and designed for the changing market. Relativity Space CRO Josh Brost explained the pivot from Terran 1 to medium/heavy Terran R: high launch economics are meaningless at low cadence, so the company is investing heavily in factory and test site capacity.
Rocket Lab CFO Adam Spice said 70% of Rocket Lab’s revenue now comes from Space Systems: “Being an end-to-end provider, we’re not just focused on launch, but also providing your customers the rest of the entire supply chain.” Mitsubishi’s Iwao Igarashi said listening to customers is the core strategy: “Simply listening to the customer’s needs, and applying the solution with customers works.” VS
