In the mid-2010s, SpaceX began to deliver on the promise of low-cost, rapid launch. At about $60 million for a basic Falcon 9 launch, the company undercut every other major orbital rocket on the market. Commercial satellite operators who had long looked to Europe, Russia, or China to get their large birds into space suddenly started flocking back to the United States for the first time in decades. SpaceX grabbed about two-thirds of the world’s commercial satellite launch business by the end of the decade.
