Should that mix of cargo change, so too may the dominant launch service providers. There is a saying in the launch industry—"You are only as good as your last launch"—that may apply to this shifting outlook.
Complicating the degree to which specific businesses have specialized in the launching of different types of spacecraft is the nature of the competition itself. Experts and analysts in space transportation suggest as the twenty-first century begins that there are too many launch firms seeking too few satellites that need launching. Should such a trend continue, several of the smaller firms, and possibly elements of the larger ones, may go out of business in the years ahead.
The Origins of the Industry
The commercial launch industry has its roots in the Cold War missiles that formed the launching rockets of the early space age. Following the launching of the world's first artificial satellite of Earth, Sputnik 1, by the Soviet Union on October 4, 1957, the governments of the USSR and the UnitedStates were the only entities that possessed space launch vehicles. The fleets of intercontinental ballistic missiles developed by the two nations served as the basis for the only rockets big and powerful enough to orbit satellites into space.
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