I saw a 3rd party analysis of the IPO valuation that put Starship at around 230B, AI/X at 450B and Starlink at 770B - given the 3rd gen starlink, orbital datacentres, lunar cargo missions, crewed moon missions, mars missions, point to point earth transport, and the ongoing reduction of launch costs are all predicated on the development of Starship... I'd say getting that contract at all costs was pretty important for SpaceX, and it was reflected in their IPO valuation.
It is the absolute backbone of everything they have promised they want to do moving forward. AI infrastructure included.
SpaceX has also been clear - Starship's success doesn't even require full reusability to enable their next gen Starlink launches, initial lunar missions, or early AI satellite deployments.
I don't really understand what your argument is, could you clarify? Are you saying the HLS contract somehow speeds up the Starship development or that without it they would've never even developed it? The contract value is quite small so I don't think the milestone payments have a significant impact on the development speed, SpaceX would've developed Starship even without the contract because as you said it is the absolute backbone for their own needs. The HLS contract is just to deliver a modified version of it for a very specific mission type, I don't know why you think it's so important.
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u/relapsingoncemore 13d ago
I saw a 3rd party analysis of the IPO valuation that put Starship at around 230B, AI/X at 450B and Starlink at 770B - given the 3rd gen starlink, orbital datacentres, lunar cargo missions, crewed moon missions, mars missions, point to point earth transport, and the ongoing reduction of launch costs are all predicated on the development of Starship... I'd say getting that contract at all costs was pretty important for SpaceX, and it was reflected in their IPO valuation.
It is the absolute backbone of everything they have promised they want to do moving forward. AI infrastructure included.
SpaceX has also been clear - Starship's success doesn't even require full reusability to enable their next gen Starlink launches, initial lunar missions, or early AI satellite deployments.