⚠ The Number Nobody Else PublishesModerate threat

The cost-per-kilogram advantage is real, but two cautions belong beside it. First, the figure is partly a matter of internal accounting — how much refurbishment truly costs, how many flights a booster really survives, and how the fixed costs of the whole enterprise are allocated are things outsiders largely take on faith. Second, and more important, a cost lead is a moat only for as long as it is not matched. China's state and commercial programs are pouring resources into reusable rockets with the explicit aim of erasing this gap, and a determined national effort answers to strategic logic, not quarterly returns. The advantage today is wide; the honest question is how quickly a rival willing to spend without limit — Blue Origin now lands boosters too¹ — can narrow it.