Vikram Nidamaluri, Managing Director of Telecom, Media, and Entertainment at Lazard, speaks during a panel at the World Satellite Business Week conference on Sept. 11, 2023.
Michael Sheetz | CNBC
A Lazard investment banker has raised concerns about Elon Musk’s SpaceX dominating the rocket launch market, especially as U.S. competitors are yet to launch new vehicles.
“I think it’s a huge concern,” expressed Vikram Nidamaluri, managing director of telecom, media, and entertainment at Lazard, during a panel discussion at the World Satellite Business Week conference.
Nidamaluri added, “Having such a dominant launch provider is probably not healthy for the commercial prospects of the industry. No one wants a monopoly that stifles competition in the value chain. While other players are increasing their capacity, the progress has not been significant enough.”
Nidamaluri’s concerns reflect others’ worries within the space industry. The launch of rockets is a potential bottleneck for valuable satellites, spacecraft, and astronauts. Despite several U.S. companies working on competing with SpaceX’s Falcon rockets, delays have hindered the development of next-generation operational rockets.
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Recently, SpaceX achieved its 63rd mission of 2023, surpassing last year’s record of 61 missions. The company is currently averaging a launch every four days. SpaceX leads in both rocket launches and the mass of spacecraft delivered to orbit each quarter, surpassing China, its closest competitor, in satellite and astronaut launches.
A Falcon 9 rocket launches a Starlink mission on January 31, 2023 from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
SpaceX
Tom Ochinero, Vice President of SpaceX, addressed Nidamaluri’s concerns during another panel discussion at the World Satellite Business Week. He emphasized that SpaceX is willing to launch satellites for its competitors, apart from serving its own Starlink satellite internet service.
“We’ve proven that, yeah, we will,” Ochinero stated. “We’re primarily a launch company, and our goal is to provide launches.”
Although Starlink is SpaceX’s primary customer, Ochinero mentioned that the company has rescheduled its own satellite launches to accommodate launches for other customers and competitors. SpaceX has recently secured a contract to launch 14 missions for Canadian operator Telesat to deploy its Lightspeed internet satellites, and has previously launched satellites for other Starlink competitors like OneWeb, Viasat, and EchoStar.
Ochinero added, “I’m not overly concerned about this – our focus is on launching.”
Tory Bruno, CEO of United Launch Alliance (ULA), also disputed the idea that SpaceX has full control of the launch market during the same panel discussion. ULA, historically the second largest U.S. rocket competitor, has only completed two launches in 2023. The company is currently working towards the inaugural launch of its next-generation Vulcan rocket in the coming months.
“I appreciate the sentiment that [SpaceX] will be a benevolent monopoly, but I don’t see you as a monopoly, and it’s not our plan for you to become one,” said Bruno.
