06-10-2015, 04:16 PM
I'm guessing that Google hemmed and hawed, and then Elon Musk said "fine, if you're not going to do it, we will!"... giving Google the excuse they were looking for to bow out.
Just a guess, though... I'm not privy to Elon's thoughts, and probably couldn't understand most of them if I was.
Once the Falcon 9 1st stages go reusable, a "very low orbit" cloud of satellites becomes 5x cheaper to launch, which will lead to satellites not being "overbuilt" to last because they will be going in a time-limited orbit anyway, which will reduce satellite costs...
This is do-able...
Just a guess, though... I'm not privy to Elon's thoughts, and probably couldn't understand most of them if I was.
Once the Falcon 9 1st stages go reusable, a "very low orbit" cloud of satellites becomes 5x cheaper to launch, which will lead to satellites not being "overbuilt" to last because they will be going in a time-limited orbit anyway, which will reduce satellite costs...
This is do-able...