Some satellite companies still have an appetite for boutique launch services
摘要
多数卫星公司认为全球入轨发射能力仍不足。SpaceX正放缓猎鹰9号发射计划，其下一代星舰何时能承接外部载荷尚不确定。在此背景下，卫星运营商乐见新的发射服务商崛起。德国Isar Aerospace的Spectrum火箭近日首次入轨，从挪威北部航天港将一批立方星送入低地球轨道，此前其首次试飞曾失败。
If you ask most satellite companies aside from SpaceX, they will tell you the world doesn't have enough capacity for launching payloads into orbit. This is despite the blistering launch cadence we've seen around the world in recent years, led by SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket.
Customers in any sector will, of course, usually welcome competition. Theoretically, competition will lead to lower prices and allow the best to rise to the top. It seems like the customers buying launch services were right. SpaceX is dialing back its Falcon 9 launch program, and there is no certainty about when SpaceX's reusable next-generation super-heavy-lift rocket, Starship, will carry anything to orbit besides the company's own Starlink satellites.
So it's no surprise satellite operators are cheering the success of a new launch provider. This was especially the case a few days ago, when Germany's Isar Aerospace reached orbit for the first time with its Spectrum rocket. The launcher delivered a batch of CubeSats to low-Earth orbit from a spaceport in northern Norway, and Isar tasted success after its first test flight ended in failure last year.
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