Space is booming and somehow there's still no room on the rocket
Launches have never been cheaper or more frequent, yet satellite operators are quietly freaking out. Telesat is fielding calls from rivals begging to share its Falcon 9 slots. Amazon's Kuiper constellation has slowed satellite production because so few of its booked launches are actually happening. The culprit: SpaceX, which dominates Western launch, is winding down Falcon 9 in favor of Starship, and increasingly prioritizing its own Starlink and data center payloads over paying customers. With demand for tens of thousands of satellite launches coming this decade, the crunch is set to get worse before it gets better.
Turns out the golden age of space access has one landlord, and he's raising the rent on everyone but himself.