The aerospace industry is desperately trying to copy SpaceX: good luck with that

Earlier this month, SpaceX’s Super Heavy rocket booster returned to Earth via an impressive landing into the same pad from which the 20-story behemoth was launched, caught by giant mechanical arms. Faced with this game-changing technology that allows SpaceX to rapidly reuse its rockets, the aerospace industry now finds itself in a game of catch up.

The problem, of course, is that letting the competition innovate, and then trying to copy its technology is a losing game. Innovation does not take place on paper or through a strategic plan, but in the real world, and that involves a combination of skill, practice and human teams that cannot be achieved from one day to the next.

SpaceX has been breaking its component reuse ratios steadily since 2020, allowing it to reduce its costs to the point that it is far and away the player with the best cost structure in the industry, generating huge savings for its customers. Starship’s vast economies of scale will only increase those savings to the point that whoever decides to use another competitor for any mission will be losing a lot of money. It is estimated that Starship will reduce the cost of carrying each kilogram into Earth’s orbit by about fifty to eighty times.