/sci/ - Science & Math

>>15262649
It was actually a lot worse than that.

https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/10.2514/6.1995-936
>The U.S. space industry lost its lead in launching commercial satellites several years ago, and is falling further behind every day. The United States, for seventeen years from 1965 to 1981, launched every commercial satellite. The world's first and only commercial space launch company, Arianespace, is responsible for taking the lead away from the United States. Arianespace now dominates the commercial launch market by launching 65% of the commercial satellites. The entry of China, Japan, and Russia further reduced U.S. launches to less than 26% (Figure 1). An estimated $1 billion each year is lost to outside space launch competition. The demise of the U.S. commercial launch business will continue at an ever increasing rate with the emergence of the Chinese, Japanese, and Russian commercial space launch programs and the debut of the Ariane 5. The future for U.S. commercial space launch business looks grim unless immediate corrective action is taken.