"Fred J. McCall" wrote in message
...
Stratolaunch is halting development of its own engines and launch
vehicles and focusing on aircraft development to launch
Northrop-Grumman boosters. This action, with the accompanying layoff
of 50 or so people, is occurring in the wake of Paul Allen's death and
may be a sign that without a 'sweetheart' investor the development of
their own engines and vehicles, announced last year, is just too
expensive for them to sustain.

I'm pretty sure that in the near future they'll cease operations completely.
There're simply too many competitors out there, a number of which have
already established themselves in the market. And then there's the
state-sponsored competition from Europe, China and India. The pie is simply
too small for all of them to make a living. China is also 'creating'
so-called 'commercial' space companies, some of which are SpaceX copy-cats
and wannabes.


One has to wonder if the same thing could happen to Blue Origin if
Jeff Bezos were to drop dead for some reason. That seems less likely,
as they're further along in vehicle development, but still possible.


I'm pretty sure the same thing would happen. For Bezos, Blue Origin is just
a (very expensive) hobby. Without the cash he's putting up Blue Origin would
collapse almost overnight.