# Repeatable launch sites could scale space infrastructure

Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/s/repeatable-launch-sites-could-scale-space-infrastructure/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy.

- Speaker: [Baiju Bhatt](https://realalpha.app/builders/baiju-bhatt/) · Baiju Bhatt is founder of Cowboy Space. · Founded Cowboy Space, building an integrated system for launch, solar power and AI compute in orbit.
- Host: [Shawn Ryan](https://realalpha.app/people/shawn-ryan/) · Host, The Shawn Ryan Show
- Show: The Shawn Ryan Show
- Episode: [The Space Technology That Could Change History Forever](https://realalpha.app/v/UnF8-b3xRy0/), Oct 27, 2026
- Moment: 46:57 to 52:16 of the episode (5 min), playing on https://realalpha.app/s/repeatable-launch-sites-could-scale-space-infrastructure/; the episode from there: https://realalpha.app/v/UnF8-b3xRy0/?t=2817

## Quote

> “we actually think it's **more economical** to build a slightly smaller rocket and make more of them and launch those.”
> — [Baiju Bhatt](https://realalpha.app/builders/baiju-bhatt/) at [47:08](https://realalpha.app/v/UnF8-b3xRy0/?t=2828) · The Shawn Ryan Show

## Takeaways

1. The plan uses four active launch mounts at a time.
2. Rockets could launch two minutes apart when a window opens.
3. Each site is projected to cost about $1 billion.

## About this segment

Baiju Bhatt proposes launching smaller rockets on repeatable trajectories, with multiple launch mounts operating in parallel. He estimates each site could cost about $1 billion and produce 660 megawatts of compute annually.

From “The Space Technology That Could Change History Forever”, Oct 27, 2026. [Watch the full episode](https://realalpha.app/v/UnF8-b3xRy0/)

## Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

[47:07](https://realalpha.app/v/UnF8-b3xRy0/?t=2827) So massed orbit. You can kind of summarize what our approach to building rocketry here is. is that rather than building one gigantic rocket, we actually think it's more economical to build a slightly smaller rocket and make more of them and launch those. And so our design for our launch facility, which we call the trailhead, is rapid deployment of multiple rockets at a time. One of the things that we talked about in the beginning was the fact that we're putting our satellites in this, like, terminator orbit, right?

[47:48](https://realalpha.app/v/UnF8-b3xRy0/?t=2868) Well, the thing about it is it's the same orbit every time. And so you're launching rockets in the same trajectory, meaning that every time you're putting a data center satellite in space, your booster's landing basically the same spot, right? And so you design the launch operations around this. So rather than having a single launch mount per launch facility, we contemplate having four that are active at a time. And you launch rockets two minutes apart when you see a clear window opening to get stuff to space. And as we said before, when we get the space, the booster comes right back and we get to reuse it. The goal with this approach is speed and economics. Those are kind of the two through lines of this. And what we hope to achieve with each trailhead is producing about 660 megawatts of compute per year per site. Initial cost is each one of these sites can be stood

[49:12](https://realalpha.app/v/UnF8-b3xRy0/?t=2952) up relatively inexpensively. We think we can stand up the production site and the launch pads for about a billion dollars per facility we'll have five pads or sorry five launch mounts on the launch complex four will be active at a time while we refurbish one of them And the idea is rinse and repeat. Like, you can produce these things all around, at least the coastal US, other spots abroad as well.

[49:50](https://realalpha.app/v/UnF8-b3xRy0/?t=2990) And I think there's one thing that's very important here, kind of in the big scheme of things, things, which is where we started this conversation out, which is the idea of commercialization of outer space. I don't want to live in a world where it's entirely driven by government activities. We also don't want to live in a world where it's driven entirely by one or two companies. We need access to orbit and we need access to orbit for broad commercial activity.

[50:22](https://realalpha.app/v/UnF8-b3xRy0/?t=3022) the bold ambitious vision for the world we want to live in is that humanity has meaningful applications for outer space and it's not tourism it's not just looking down at the earth but that there's reasons that people are building this infrastructure in the most american of senses in pursuit of their own self-betterment for the fruits of their own labor we just don't have that in space right now like you can't do that and make a living in the way that we we see the opportunity and again this is kind of like zooming out a little bit and talking about what we want to actually have happen here but even in the context of uh developing the trailheads right i think this is an interesting point that i wanted to just articulate towards the end of this which is that if you think about the future of the space industry

[51:19](https://realalpha.app/v/UnF8-b3xRy0/?t=3079) as being one that's heavily commercial, you start looking at launch complexes a lot more like you look at airports. And there's an entire industry there that I think is going to exist in years to come, free markets and capitalism of financial services providing the capital to build, you know, these pieces of American infrastructure, launch complexes, right? And when we look out into the future, space should be a place about economic opportunity, not for just the government, not for just one company, but for humanity as a whole.

[51:58](https://realalpha.app/v/UnF8-b3xRy0/?t=3118) And to do that, we need more people going to space, and we need more people that have figured out how to make money in space. And at the end of the day, that's what we care about.