随着SpaceX公司的Falcon 9 v1.1火箭将SES-8商业通信卫星成功送入轨道,标志着美国本土4年来第一次完成商业通信卫星发射。这期间,俄罗斯和欧洲的火箭几乎包揽了全球商业发射合同。其中原因不是美国火箭的可靠性,而是成本问题。正如SES的总裁称,目前从商业的角度看,只有2家发射服务商可选,一个是国际发射服务公司的Proton火箭,另一个是Ariane 5火箭,而Atlas The successful launch of the SES-8 commercial communications satellite into orbit by SpaceX Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket marks the first time the U.S. has completed its commercial communications satellite launch in four years. During this period, Russian and European rocket almost swept the global commercial launch contract. The reason is not the reliability of the U.S. rocket but the cost issue. As the president of SES said, currently only two launching service providers are commercially available, one Proton rocket from International Launch Services and the other a Ariane 5 rocket, while Atlas