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The John Batchelor Show

S8 Ep186: SpaceX Dominance and the Golden Dome Defense Project: Colleague Bob Zimmerman highlights SpaceX's dominance with record-breaking booster reuse and launch frequency compared to rivals, discussing the secretive "Golden Dome" defense project, defects on the

The John Batchelor Show

John Batchelor

Books, News, Society & Culture, Arts

4.52.8K Ratings

🗓️ 11 December 2025

⏱️ 14 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

SpaceX Dominance and the Golden Dome Defense Project: Colleague Bob Zimmerman highlights SpaceX's dominance with record-breaking booster reuse and launch frequency compared to rivals, discussing the secretive "Golden Dome" defense project, defects on the Orion capsule's hatch threatening the Artemis mission, and Airbus surprisingly choosing a Chinese satellite constellation for in-flight internet.

Transcript

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0:00.0

This is CBSI on the world.

0:06.9

I'm John Batchel.

0:08.0

SpaceX.

0:09.0

If it was a hockey team, it's up 75 to 0, and it's still laying it on.

0:13.3

Bob Zimmerman is here.

0:14.4

He keeps the website behind the black, reporting on Yon, yet another record for SpaceX.

0:19.9

Hi, Bob.

0:20.5

What are they up to?

0:21.9

Yeah, they did another 29 Starlink satellites into orbit early this week.

0:30.3

And what was significant about that launch was several things that need to be noted.

0:35.3

One, the first stage completed its 32-second flight. This is a new

0:41.1

record for a Falcon 9 booster. It also puts it only one behind the space shuttle Atlantis

0:48.6

for the most free uses by a launch vehicle. In fact, only Discovery and Atlantis are now ahead of this booster.

0:57.3

And SpaceX has actually four boosters on the same boat,

1:00.0

all pushing those last two shuttles.

1:04.1

I predict that not long before all of SpaceX's fleet is going to surpass all the shuttles

1:10.0

and be significantly more than them.

1:13.6

This is the reuse of a rocketry, and they do it now like an airline, the way it's supposed to be done.

1:19.7

That was one thing about this that was significant.

1:22.6

Obviously, it continues SpaceX's other domination of the launch market.

1:27.1

It has flown more times this year

1:29.6

than its nearest competitor, China, more than twice as many times as another nation, China.

...

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