I've been watching the space launch world get steadily more interesting, and not always in a comforting way. When I was a kid the idea of a private company launching rockets on the regular felt like pure science fiction. Now one outfit is launching so often that it's crowding out everyone else who needs a ride.

According to a report from Reuters, SpaceX has been reserving more and more room on its own Falcon rockets to launch Starlink satellites, the internet-beaming constellation that now numbers in the thousands. That leaves less room for other satellite operators who have relied on SpaceX as, well, basically the only affordable ride to orbit.

It's a little like if the only airline in town decided to fill every seat with its own employees. Sure, the planes are still flying. But good luck getting a ticket.

For years now SpaceX has been the go-to launch provider for companies building everything from earth-imaging satellites to communications networks. Falcon 9 became the workhorse of the modern space age because it was relatively affordable and available. Companies planned their entire launch schedules around it. Some built their business models on the assumption that SpaceX rides would keep flowing.

The catch is that SpaceX is also building one of the largest satellite networks in history. Starlink satellites have to go up on something. When your rocket fleet is busy launching your own hardware, everyone else's hardware waits. And we're not talking about waiting a few extra weeks here. Some rival operators are now booked out to 2028 or even 2029. That is years of sitting around while your competition fills the sky.

I think about the early days of personal computing, when a single company controlled both the operating system and the key applications. We've seen this story before in tech, just not with rockets. When one player owns the infrastructure and competes on top of it simultaneously, you can see where the friction comes from.

I've always believed that technology works best when there's real competition. SpaceX deserves enormous credit for revolutionizing access to space, which is honestly something I never thought I'd see in my lifetime. But a healthier long-term picture needs multiple reliable providers, and a launch market where satellite operators aren't begging for scraps from the one company that also happens to be their biggest competitor.

I'll keep watching this one. The next couple of years will tell us a lot about whether the launch market genuinely opens up, or whether SpaceX tightens its grip even further. My granddaughter Jess asked me last week why anyone cares about satellites, and I told her that everything from her GPS to her streaming to her weather app depends on them. She thought about that for a second and said, "So we basically need the sky to work." Out of the mouths of teenagers.

The sky does need to work. And right now a lot of satellite companies are hoping it keeps working for them too, not just for the one company holding the keys.