For my accompanying blogs, see:
- New space, a Rorschach test, July 12, 2021
- Commercial launch trends – what do you see? August 22, 2022
- And regarding commercial launches and market elasticity, see NASA: Making markets, not rockets? December 1, 2022
- Three graphs and a truck, August 23, 2023
The US Department of Transportation defines a commercial launch as a “launch that is internationally competed (i.e., available in principle to international launch providers) or whose primary payload is commercial in nature”; also, FAA-licensed launches. So, interpreting Starlink as “commercial in nature,” it is included here. Cargo and crew to the ISS, NASA science missions, and now US DoD payloads are also “competed” and awarded on “commercial” terms, even if only nationally, and so are included here.
Zapata Talks NASA 