Even before Rocket Lab’s Sept. 19 launch failure, people were tossing around the word “monopoly” when it came to SpaceX. It had become increasingly clear that companies needing to launch their satellites in the near future had few options beyond SpaceX, particularly those spacecraft too large to launch on a small vehicle like Electron, as other launch providers stumbled. “Having such a dominant launch service provider is probably not healthy in general for the commercial prospects of the industry,” Vikram Nidamaluri, managing director of the telecom, media, and entertainment group at investment banking firm Lazard, told World Satellite Business Week attendees the week before. “No one wants a monopoly choking off one point of the value chain.”
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