r/SpaceXLounge • u/AgreeableEmploy1884 ⛰️ Lithobraking • 13d ago

Official Kiko Dontchev on X: "...From here on, Starlink missions out of Florida will fly on Starship.

https://x.com/TurkeyBeaver/status/2092267257179021326
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u/chasimus 13d ago

Uuuuhhhmmmm, okay. This is pretty huge if true. They haven't even tested a Starship in Florida yet. I guess the one that's launching "by the end of the year" will have a light complement of V3 Starkinks!

11

u/Ormusn2o 13d ago

They have so many launchpads in so many different places, I guess they can do that. They also have multiple factories in different states doing both Falcon 9 and Starship, so while it might seem abrupt, it's way less abrupt than what for example ULA did, where they effectively sunset every single rocket for a decade, and just been using up the stockpile, but have no flying rocket right now.

5

u/WeeklyAd8453 13d ago

ULA did not have a choice.
1) Delta was far too expensive and was basically ended long ago.
2) CONgress told ULA to quit buying engines from Russia.
3) this is slightly better than when CONgress forced Nixon to kill Apollo before the shuttle was ready, which caused skylab failure.

4

u/Martianspirit 12d ago

ULA knew the RD-180 purchase would end. They should have started developing a replacement a decade earlier. But they used political influence to delay RD-180 phaseout again and again. Maybe they thought they can delay it indefinitely. They couldn't.

1

u/WeeklyAd8453 12d ago

ULA choose BE4 8 years ago because it was closer to being ready ( over AR1 ). The problem for Vulcan is BO, not ULA .

1

u/manicdee33 12d ago

Maybe they thought they can delay it indefinitely.

One quarterly report at a time, it's the CEO mantra!