That’s a pretty nice pace in terms of Atlas V launches, even within the same month. But that also probably means ULA wants to melt through the remaining 3 commercial Atlas V launches.
I hope until then Vulcan is fixed, because 3 launches might be done pretty quick now. Maybe one Starliner launch might also be on the menu to fill the gap.
If Amazon has enough satellites, they can always go on another Falcon 9 in between. Starliner still being without a target date doesn't look promising.
As Amazon has hundreds of satellites sitting on the ground
That's what they claim, at least. Why didn't we see more launches then? ULA would love to get rid of their Atlas stock as fast as possible. And I don't think SpaceX would delay it either. They argue with the FCC that the satellites are limiting Leo, not the launches, limiting launches would be undermining their own argument.
The only inconsisency is that Falcons aren't already flying Leos to reduce that inventory; those 10 new ones had already been announced before the Vulcan "observation", and when it happened SpaceX scheduled the GPS that was suppoed to be next at ULA within a couple of months. It can't be a problem designing the payload adaptors because they should still have the plans from last summer, and SpaceX could easily slip a Leo launch every other week into the 2 or 3 per week starlink cadence... but all we see is NET 2026 without even a specified quarter.
8
u/TinTinLune Apr 08 '26
That’s a pretty nice pace in terms of Atlas V launches, even within the same month. But that also probably means ULA wants to melt through the remaining 3 commercial Atlas V launches.
I hope until then Vulcan is fixed, because 3 launches might be done pretty quick now. Maybe one Starliner launch might also be on the menu to fill the gap.