RocketGuy

@LionnetPierre @theo_wayt What it shows is these investors are wildly credulous, and interested only in hype growth, not any market reality. There's also no reason for Starship itself to lower the launch price structure, so maybe they just believe in SpaceX competitors...but doubt it's that sophisticated

@theo_wayt Considering that the whole of Starcloud’s business model hinges on a 40x reduction in launch costs this shows the insane level of confidence investors have in Starship to succeed AND to lower the launch price structure.

Scoop 🚀🖥️: Starcloud, a two-year-old orbital data center startup, is in talks to 2x its valuation to $2.2b just one month after announcing another round at $1.1b. It has launched a single satellite with a single Nvidia chip, but the SpaceX IPO is getting investors excited

@theo_wayt A single satellite BUILT BY ANOTHER COMPANY, containing 0 Starcloud or space data center-relevant tech.

@AI_in_LEO Best take on this to date. Isn't Google already in with Planet? If you're a "not SpaceX", you probably want to go to someone with real tech or expertise. Would bet these guys try for something like "edge compute for natsec space missions" near term, w a "roadmap" to data centers

People really need to cool down on space datacenters. These guys have certainly positioned to go the distance, but so far have only demonstrated a computer payload on another satellite. No, SpaceX is not interested in buying them. SpaceX would put an intern on that project. SpaceX will create their own satellites, from the ground up, with lessons learned from StarLink. They will be cheaper, higher performing, and more manufacturable than whatever StarCloud is coming up with. This leaves StarCloud in a very interesting position. How do you differentiate yourself enough to beat SpaceX? Take more risks? Compared to SpaceX? Try to compete on cost? Against the people who own the rockets? I suspect StarCloud will try to make some technological leap, in radiative cooling or elsewhere deep within the architecture, then pray to protect it to maintain an edge. They will also likely be pushing themselves as the only option for companies besides X to train on Orbit. OpenAI, Google, Anthropic all need compute. The US government might simply be interested in compute that is not controlled by Elon's conglomerate. Distributing the power is important to avoid over-levered players. StarCloud's mission is to convince all of them that they can build it in space cheaper and faster than internal teams.

@broblas @Farshchi Always enjoyable to see VCs expose themselves for the buffoons they are, though

@Farshchi What a dumb thing to say out loud in front of people

The only humans sent to space ought to be tourists Robots should be doing all the science/mining/building/etc

@Farshchi What an incredibly short sighted and naive idea! Or, perhaps a fundamental lack of understanding of the distances in space and the impacts of comm latency on any substantial activity

@MollySOShea @_Eric_Romo @GoToImpulse Definitely true! But also underscores the rather unclear business case for a kick stage that consumes payload volume to maybe reduce cost a little vs the alternatives for GEO+ (or increase cost but speed up deployment a little vs standard GTO)

BREAKING: Eric Romo (@_Eric_Romo), President & COO of Impulse Space (@GoToImpulse) says: "The idea that launch prices are going to fall significantly in the next 5 years is nonsense." "I think there are an awful lot of business models that are predicated on “when Starship allows me to launch for $200 a kilogram…” I think they’re all broken, & all those companies are going to fail." "I think we’ve seen this play out already with Falcon 9 & the pricing around it, where the costs of Falcon 9 allowed SpaceX to deliver the Starlink constellation at a cost per CapEx that made them profitable. But they set the price in the market at something that just barely made it an okay investment to think about OneWeb or Kuiper or anything like that. So they ran that playbook exactly on Falcon 9, & they had their gross margins on Falcon 9—people think we’ll see when the S1 comes out—are like 50% plus. So they could have dropped the price, & they didn’t. They’re going to do the same thing on Starship, because why wouldn’t they? Their internal costs on Starship are going to be whatever they need to be to deploy Starlink & orbital data centers, but they’re going to set the price so that anybody trying to do comms, anybody trying to do orbital data centers—the price is going to be too high. So if you’re a third party relying on them for a lower price of access to space, I think you’re hosed." 00:20 Hot Take Launch Prices 01:41 SpaceX Market Power 02:23 Impulse Space Overview 02:54 Mira For GEO Defense 03:45 Helios Direct To GEO 05:19 Caravan Rideshare To GEO 06:42 Space Economy Reality Check 08:46 Tom Mueller Legends 10:54 SpaceX IPO 13:42 Investor Frenzy & Broomstick 14:05 Alien Eyeballs Outro @elonmusk Recorded at @NYSE x @payloadspace Space Summit

@SciGuySpace @GoToImpulse Yes indeed

@wahoo_M1 It sure looks like an RFI tailor made for @GoToImpulse

@SciGuySpace, this seems like quite an indictment of Vulcan, and perhaps NSSL more broadly, from what is currently one of the most powerful orgs in USSF... sam.gov/opp/5e2b894344… Basically saying "we need a kick stage b/c Vulcan and FH aren't getting it done"...

@barratt_dewey everyone please stop with the "IDIQ ceiling value" announcement nonsense. This award is $100k per recipient for a study phase, which allows them to compete for the initial order (which is also not $1.8B). Likely 2, maybe 3 of these companies will get orders (and one will be NG)

🛰️ NEW: Anduril, Astranis Space, BAE Space & Mission Systems, General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems, Intuitive Machines, L3Harris, Lockheed Martin, Millennium Space Systems, Northrop Grumman, Quantum Space, Redwire Space, Sierra Space, and Turion Space were awarded a ceiling $1.84 billion firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for the Andromeda program. This contract provides for the procurement of space-based space domain awareness capability. Work is expected to be completed by April 2036. So far, just $1.4M in FY2025 RDT&E funds have been obligated.

@fikocian @jollyrogersta "crucial", come on now... certainly "aspiring to be crucial", but raising a ton of money and failing a couple missions doesn't qualify them just yet

@jollyrogersta, CEO of True Anomaly, crucial US space defense company that last raised 230M Series C led by Accel has only 33 followers on X. Let's pump it up.

@rocketrepreneur Is Gravitics building the OTX also, or working with a partner for that?

We'll roll out more about Carrier and Viper as the time goes on, but this combo of long-duration storability, orbital pre-positioning, high-DV rapid response, and the ability to use some of the same hardware to address commercial markets, is one that I'm excited is now underway.

I'm really excited to have this project formally underway, and to be able to share a little more detail about it. We'll release more information on the two flight demos as we get closer to flight time, but just being able to share a little more details than before is great.

@GoToImpulse Pretty cool, but sure doesn't look like something that's getting ready to launch in early 2027...

Say hello to the Deneb engine. Our team continues to check off milestones and make rapid progress in development. We are now into mainstage engine testing and are rapidly iterating on hardware and software toward a flight-ready system. If you want to build bad a** engines – apply on our website.

@TMFAssociates Also hilarious that these people believe you can launch something on FH for $1,500/kg

Sigh...whether or not Starship works, third parties won't have access to it at "cost"

@drjolatunji This is the most interesting part of the K2 mission and tech stack for sure

Can't wait to see the largest electric thruster (20 kW) operate on-orbit!

@JackKuhr Ha wow, incredibly embarrassing to take this picture and post it. The true mark of a tourist.

Starcloud’s immediate biz opportunity is space to space AI compute. The Pentagon, in particular, has a lot of need for it. Handling a meaningful amount of terrestrial AI workloads will take some time.

@mouthofmorrison This seems like it should be short term true, but long term (the only timescale that matters for any meaningful impact) just noise. On the other hand, if one company raises huge $$ on noise and it means better ones in the same segment are starved...

Now I’m not so sure. Sense of momentum and narrative shaping are how you create value for *investors* before you’ve reached the point of funding your business with customers. Capital is a weapon and knowing how to attract it is just as important as knowing how to deploy it.

One thing I’m learning from watching the top fundraising space startups is that they create a sense of momentum through lots of small milestones. As I watch them check off boxes (first satellite ready, fist launch, first contact, etc.) I can’t help but think I’m missing the point

@mouthofmorrison @IanRountree Let's be real, it's "valuable" because there's hype and fomo. Orbital data centers are probably going to be a thing, but these investors didn't pay for any relevant tech, accomplishments, or competitive advantage.

@IanRountree It’s a lot of money for a very hard problem really early with a beachhead market I’m in (Earth observation) and an existential platform risk (your biggest competitor is your only launch option). But then again, if it were obvious, it wouldn’t be valuable.

This is how Philip and I met

@aaronburnett It's more the other way around, F9 was designed to standard payload performance. The fairing volume is an EELV standard. The mass to orbit is based on commercial GEO bird standard, which is why "F9-5500" is a thing.

Falcon 9 permanently changed launch expectations for customers particularly government. Many current and future government missions are planned around the payload capability and dimensions, due to its unmatched reliability. New launchers need to live up to this now including building larger ships to fit similar payload capabilities. This is why you see the new launchers targeting roughly similar payload sizes in the upcoming vehicles. Starship probably repeats this phenomenon again in the super heavy category.

@fccfilingalerts Starfall initial tests perhaps... Could be bad news for Sierra, Inversion, Varda, etc

🚨🚨 Space Exploration - FCC Docket 0601-EX-ST-2026 SpaceX is requesting permission to operate Starlink earth stations on their Reentry Vehicles during upcoming launches between May and November 2026. These Reentry Vehicles, carrying Starlink phased array terminals, will be secondary payloads deployed during Falcon 9 launches from Cape Canaveral. The terminals will facilitate telemetry, tracking, and command (TT&C) operations after the primary payload is released, communicating during reentry and recovery. This short-duration communication enhances Reentry Vehicle reliability and efficiently uses existing earth station terminals, furthering space innovation. The system will communicate with Starlink satellites, adjusting power to maintain a constant signal level. Transmit power will not exceed 4.06 W, with a maximum EIRP of 38.2 dBW. The proposed operations will protect other spectrum users by complying with ITU EPFD limits designed for NGSO systems and will be self-monitoring, automatically ceasing transmissions within 100 milliseconds if limits are exceeded. 🔗 apps.fcc.gov//els/GetAtt.ht….

@fikocian @StarfishSpace LOL D-Orbit being huge jerks, not very surprising

Rollecoaster with a good end. Let's go @StarfishSpace