11 February 2026 2018, during a panel discussion at the SmallSat Symposium, the heads of several rocket companies acknowledged the difficulty of competing with SpaceX, which in 2025 carried out approximately half of all orbital launches in the world, despite the high demand for launch services. This problem is especially acute for developers of small launch vehicles, which are trying to compete on price with SpaceX's joint launch program.
The representatives of the companies agreed, that the idea of entering the market and competing with SpaceX on price alone is not a winning one. During the discussion of competition strategies, emphasis was placed on, that you need to “be able to differentiate yourself from others: precisely the level of service, which the company provides, makes a difference for the customer".
Devon Papandreou, vice president of business development at Stoke Space, said, what 10 In February of this year, the startup attracted additional employees $350 million and plans to compete with a fully reusable mid-range medium. In his opinion, "it is reusability that will ensure the lower limit of the cost, which no other medium can cut”. Mr. Papandreou remarked, that SpaceX achieved its current dominance through masterful implementation of reusability of first stages, which unlocked higher launch frequency and lower cost.
The issue of the lack of launches and the dominant position of SpaceX was also the topic of other panels at the conference, in particular that one, which took place earlier the same day and related to investments. Participants discussed the problem of the imbalance between supply and demand for startups. Recently, the market seemed oversaturated with launch vehicles, especially in the small segment, however, many of those carriers never made it to the launch pad due to technical and financial issues, such as the British company Orbex, which recently became bankrupt. Therefore, "the apparent oversaturation of previous years has disappeared, because the companies simply could not implement their projects".
Source: https://spacenews.com