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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

SpaceX targets 2021 commercial Starship launch [spacenews.com]

The first commercial mission for SpaceX's Starship and Super Heavy launch system will likely take place in 2021, a company executive said June 26.

Jonathan Hofeller, SpaceX's vice president of commercial sales, said the company is in talks with prospective customers for the first commercial launch of that system roughly two years from now. "We are in discussions with three different customers as we speak right now to be that first mission," Hofeller said at the APSAT conference here. "Those are all telecom companies."

[...] Hofeller said the discounted pricing SpaceX gave to early customers of Falcon 9 missions with pre-flown first-stage boosters is now the company's normal pricing. SpaceX Founder Elon Musk said last year that previously flown booster missions were priced "around $50 million," down from $62 million. Musk said SpaceX's prices would continue to decline, too. Hofeller reiterated that prices would keep dropping through the introduction of Super Heavy and Starship. The fully reusable nature of the launch system enables those lower prices, he said.

Being fully reusable also opens up new mission possibilities, he said. "You could potentially recapture a satellite and bring it down if you wanted to," Hofeller said. "It's very similar to the [space] shuttle bay in that regard. So we have this tool, and we are challenging the industry: what would you do with it?"

Starship [wikipedia.org].

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