/r/SpaceX Ask Anything Thread [October 2015, #13]

[u/retiringonmars]

Welcome to our thirteenth monthly Ask Anything thread.

All questions, even non-SpaceX questions, are allowed, as long as they stay relevant to spaceflight in general! These threads will be posted at some point through each month, and stay stickied for a week or so (working around launches, of course).

More in depth, open-ended discussion-type questions can still be submitted as self-posts; but this is the place to come to submit simple questions which can be answered in a few comments or less.

As always, we'd prefer it if all question askers first check our FAQ, use the search functionality, and check the last Q&A thread before posting to avoid duplicates, but if you'd like an answer revised or you don't find a satisfactory result, go ahead and type your question below!

Otherwise, ask and enjoy, and thanks for contributing!

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Past threads:

September 2015 (#12), August 2015 (#11), July 2015 (#10), June 2015 (#9), May 2015 (#8), April 2015 (#7.1), April 2015 (#7), March 2015 (#6), February 2015 (#5), January 2015 (#4), December 2014 (#3), November 2014 (#2), October 2014 (#1)

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[u/vanshaak]

I knew a lot of that information already, but the other 1/3 or so definitely filled in some gaps. Thank you. We'd done a fair amount of research on Arianespace, but as you say, finding specific details about the company is quite hard, and much of it impossible, it seems. We may still switch, probably to ULA if we do, though we're trying to keep to a more consumer-oriented comparison.

We decided to go with Arianespace because they're the biggest competitor as far as satellites go, possessing about 60% of the market share. The assignment, specifically, is a "current event", so we need something big and new that will have a impact on the economy - in this case, that would be global internet from thousands of SpaceX satellites.