In the tropical heat on the coast of French Guiana sits a 200ft tall rocket.
Ariane 6, which was designed to carry forward the space ambitions of the European Union, has been undergoing tests at the bloc’s official space port at Guiana Space Centre.
While thousands of miles from Brussels, French Guiana is an overseas territory of France and offers Europe a gateway to orbit.
However, the project is already three years behind schedule and not expected to yield results until next year at the earliest.
The delays come at a crucial time in the new global space race: Russia is now cut off from the West’s space operations, while China is in the ascendance.
Europe has been left without a functional rocket launch capability for the first time in decades, just as space becomes increasingly contested.
As a result, Brussels has been forced to negotiate with Elon Musk’s SpaceX for use of the billionaire’s rockets to launch its sensitive Galileo spacecraft, which are satellites forming part of a sovereign navigation system.
“We have been negotiating with them for a number of launches,” says Toni Tolker-Nielsen, director of space transportation at the European Space Agency (ESA).
The agency expects to contract out four missions to SpaceX. Yet reliance on the Tesla billionaire will be uncomfortable.
Concerns about the dominance of Starlink, SpaceX’s constellation of internet satellites, have contributed to the EU’s decision to invest in its own rival network, the New York Times reported recently. Thierry Breton, a European commissioner, told the paper: “The EU cannot afford to be reliant on others.”
god damn it, putting even more money in that cunt’s pocket
It’s unfortunate but they are working on alternatives.
Ariane 6 will hopefully be ready in 2024 meanwhile
Rocket Factory Augsburg, PLD space and Isar Aerospace have already signed contracts to launch from French Guiana.
ESA also completed the first successful hot-fire test of its reusable Prometheus engine integrated with the Themis first-stage demonstrator at the ArianeGroup site in Vernon, France last month.
Melon Husk fans are insufferable and are perfect encapsulation of his caustic behaviour. Birds of a feather. The EU should not rely on this white supremacist bigot’s alms and companies.
EDIT: Melon Fanbois triggered hard by truth about their egomaniac daddy.
Let’s face it, Europe has been sleeping for a long time. We are overly reliant on outside help. We focus so damn much on policy but neglect growth. Don’t get me wrong, policies are important, but so is growth, and we do not seem to have a balance.
We also so many distractions from immigration cause as a side effect of war (from Syria to Ukraine) and climate change. We could legalize Cannabis, but we are being governed by old farts, we could Crypto policies in place but old money is refusing. I am at lost at this stage, I don’t know it the issue is greed or corruption, but Europe has a whole needs to wake up.
EDIT: A lot of people just seems to be pointing to the negatives, maybe that is a European issue in general. I am not saying this is bad, again nothing is black and white. Sometimes we have to strike a balance and not close our mind when someone brings out one problem in many solutions. I was talking about ways to generate revenue and possible issues holding us back. Relax.
They’re not “Elon Musk’s” rockets. They’re by the engineers that actually do the work. spacex is heavily subsidized by the US government
Europe and engineering/tech are really diverging. Europe generally pays shit for engineers, especially the skilled ones. At that point I’d take a job at McDonald.
7 comments
***From The Telegraph’s Matthew Field:***
In the tropical heat on the coast of French Guiana sits a 200ft tall rocket.
Ariane 6, which was designed to carry forward the space ambitions of the European Union, has been undergoing tests at the bloc’s official space port at Guiana Space Centre.
While thousands of miles from Brussels, French Guiana is an overseas territory of France and offers Europe a gateway to orbit.
However, the project is already three years behind schedule and not expected to yield results until next year at the earliest.
The delays come at a crucial time in the new global space race: Russia is now cut off from the West’s space operations, while China is in the ascendance.
Europe has been left without a functional rocket launch capability for the first time in decades, just as space becomes increasingly contested.
As a result, Brussels has been forced to negotiate with Elon Musk’s SpaceX for use of the billionaire’s rockets to launch its sensitive Galileo spacecraft, which are satellites forming part of a sovereign navigation system.
“We have been negotiating with them for a number of launches,” says Toni Tolker-Nielsen, director of space transportation at the European Space Agency (ESA).
The agency expects to contract out four missions to SpaceX. Yet reliance on the Tesla billionaire will be uncomfortable.
Concerns about the dominance of Starlink, SpaceX’s constellation of internet satellites, have contributed to the EU’s decision to invest in its own rival network, the New York Times reported recently. Thierry Breton, a European commissioner, told the paper: “The EU cannot afford to be reliant on others.”
**Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/08/14/europe-forced-turn-elon-musk-rockets-global-space-race/**
god damn it, putting even more money in that cunt’s pocket
It’s unfortunate but they are working on alternatives.
Ariane 6 will hopefully be ready in 2024 meanwhile
Rocket Factory Augsburg, PLD space and Isar Aerospace have already signed contracts to launch from French Guiana.
ESA also completed the first successful hot-fire test of its reusable Prometheus engine integrated with the Themis first-stage demonstrator at the ArianeGroup site in Vernon, France last month.
https://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Space_Transportation/Full_ignition_for_ESA_s_reusable_rocket_engine
Melon Husk fans are insufferable and are perfect encapsulation of his caustic behaviour. Birds of a feather. The EU should not rely on this white supremacist bigot’s alms and companies.
EDIT: Melon Fanbois triggered hard by truth about their egomaniac daddy.
Let’s face it, Europe has been sleeping for a long time. We are overly reliant on outside help. We focus so damn much on policy but neglect growth. Don’t get me wrong, policies are important, but so is growth, and we do not seem to have a balance.
We also so many distractions from immigration cause as a side effect of war (from Syria to Ukraine) and climate change. We could legalize Cannabis, but we are being governed by old farts, we could Crypto policies in place but old money is refusing. I am at lost at this stage, I don’t know it the issue is greed or corruption, but Europe has a whole needs to wake up.
EDIT: A lot of people just seems to be pointing to the negatives, maybe that is a European issue in general. I am not saying this is bad, again nothing is black and white. Sometimes we have to strike a balance and not close our mind when someone brings out one problem in many solutions. I was talking about ways to generate revenue and possible issues holding us back. Relax.
They’re not “Elon Musk’s” rockets. They’re by the engineers that actually do the work. spacex is heavily subsidized by the US government
Europe and engineering/tech are really diverging. Europe generally pays shit for engineers, especially the skilled ones. At that point I’d take a job at McDonald.