How SpaceX Could Win The Space Race | CNBC Marathon

CNBC Marathon explores SpaceX's quest to win the space race.

SpaceX’s broadband satellite internet, Starlink, is expected to be a cash cow for SpaceX, bringing in as much as $30 billion a year — more than 10 times the annual revenue of its existing rocket business. This revenue will be used to fuel Starlink's CEO, Elon Musk’s ultimate goal of building a colony on Mars. Eventually, Starlink may even keep us connected on the Red Planet.

To get real-life first impressions of the service, CNBC spoke to more than 50 people who have been using Starlink. Those surveyed included households in Canada and 13 U.S. states: California, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

Starship is SpaceX’s largest reusable rocket. It can carry more than 100 metric tons of cargo and crew per launch. Musk, says Starship represents the “holy grail” for space travel, but the giant rocket vehicle also is crucial for SpaceX’s future. Some experts have estimated that if SpaceX succeeds with Starship alongside Starlink, the space firm’s valuation could skyrocket into the trillions of dollars. But before SpaceX can get Starship into orbit, the company faces a number of technical and regulatory challenges.

The rocket business is heating up and one startup has grand ambitions of following SpaceX to orbit. With a team comprised of industry veterans, Firefly Aerospace wants to be a dominant launch provider in the growing small satellite market. While the rewards are great, the risk are high. The company already suffered through a bankruptcy and is still trying to reach orbit.
CNBC Marathon brings together the best of CNBC on YouTube.

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
00:39 Why Starlink is crucial to SpaceX’s success (Published April 2021)
19:46 Why Starship is the holy grail for SpaceX (Published March 2022)
34:33 How ex-SpaceX engineers are fueling the space race with Firefly (Published November 2021)

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How SpaceX Could Win The Space Race | CNBC Marathon

[michaelwebsternz]

Just did a Starlink Test and got 261Mbps down and 13Mbps up with 33ms latency from Auckland, New Zealand. Perfectly useable for Internet access. Highly recommended for rural areas for sure.

[LarsPallesen]

It's a bit disengenius to talk about SpaceX having 'technical problems' in the development of Starship. The development of a revolutionary new spacecraft like Starship can best be described as a cluster of hurdles and technical problems that have to be overcome and solved one by one. It's not as if SpaceX expected the first prototypes to just take off, go to Mars and land perfectly. And there's still many test rockets to go before SpaceX has a fully working Starship. But that's simply the nature of developing new technology.

[shirolee]

Title needs to be changed to "SpaceX won the space race"

[garyevans]

Could win ?
As usual, CNBC is a step or two behind.
SpaceX has already won the space race with they're Falcon 9.
Once they get the Super Heavy/ Starship operational, SpaceX's domination will go to the next level.

[MrStephenmindo]

Michael Sheetz has a dream job. In 50 years space journalism will be the only kind of journalism left. lifetime job secure.

[arguanmodeth]

So nice to see that a legacy news source still allows comments and opinions not their own. Thumbs up CNBC

[Captain-Sum.Ting-Wong]

I'm not a fan of Elon Musk and his personal antics but I will admit what he has done with SpaceX has been amazing. Totally revived the United States' flailing space program.

[guslevy]

Our next CNBC video:

“How Apple can finally win in the smartphone race.”

[TexanUSMC]

Most companies call a launch and flight a success. SpaceX wants Starship to launch, fly, and land so it can be refueled and fly again. If you go by most standards, every launch of Starship was successful. So far, SpaceX is the only company that has ever launched a rocket to orbit and land the booster back on the ground. Falcon9 rocket boosters have successfully launched and landed over 100 times. There should be no doubt that they'll get Starship operational soon.
The vast majority of the people that live in Cameron County Texas are huge supporters of SpaceX. They employ 6000 people and have built highways, remodeled and expanded the airport, gave the city of Brownsville millions of dollars for upgrades, and gave the school system 10 million dollars to expand and modernize.

[williamnot]

What do you mean “could dominate Space”. Spacex already dominates Space.

[namikigbea]

What a time to be alive! I love waking up knowing that these companies are striving to advance humanity.

[Yutani_Crayven]

16:12 As previously shown in this video, Starlink orbits in Low Earth Orbit, below 500km. That means that the satellites experience significant contact with the Earth's atmosphere and they will deorbit by themselves, without needing to make use of propulsion at all. These low orbits are self-cleaning, which sets them apart from higher orbits.

[joe]

Next week on CNBC: How Tony Hawk could become a skateboarding icon.

[Brucel]

Space X wasn't born with a silver spoon in its mouth. Let us not forget how many times they almost failed.

[tiesetsomatsipa]

@ 15:30 if the satellite loses its connection from ground or no response, I believe they are already equipped with auto-deorbit options if it happens it no longer work, just like Drones do when they lose connection with the controller, they automatically can sense that and return home, so it doesn't seem to be an issue if it loses connection, it will most probably just deorbit and burn up in the atmosphere. The reporter needs to at least understand where we are today in terms of technology.

[kujo]

Could win the space race? Have you been living under a rock? A far as I'm aware of, Space X is the only company I know of that has multiple reusable rockets and has more successful launches in one year than all other launches put together by a large number, and is a commercial company that has also delivered both government and civilian astronauts.

[Fernication]

"Could" win the space race. It already won by far lol

[lorandoane]

I like that this story was broken down to where I can understand and appreciate it. Thanks!

[dc]

Wait.... "Could dominate"? Spacex already dominates with a 30% market share. Sure, Starlink and Starship are a huge part of their current and future business, but Spacex is already the world leader in putting both humans and cargo into space. BTW, I use Starlink on my sailboat... it's by far the most economical way to get full internet out at sea. So the potential customer base for Starlink is much bigger than people realize.

[RasakBlood]

Its easy to win when you are the only competitor in your class.