Got that song going round and round in my head now, thanks...
First Ariane 6 rocket ready to assemble as Europe begins final countdown
The European Space Agency is ready to put together the first Ariane 6 rocket, and has declared the campaign to get it into orbit is under way. A Friday post from the agency revealed that the central core and boosters of the first Ariane 6 are now on the launchpad at Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. The core made …
COMMENTS
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Monday 29th April 2024 10:57 GMT HuBo
Great news!
Hopefully this will be another positive step in the direction of freeing ourselves from reliance on Roscosmos and its shenanigans.
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Monday 29th April 2024 12:46 GMT Charlie Clark
Re: Great news!
Yes, because Mr Musk has demonstrated what a reliable guy he is… If things go accordingly to plan there should be sufficient demand for Ariane, though maybe not in LEO, where everybody wants to be until this gets properly regulated.
New launch capacity will be coming form India, China and elsewhere so it will be possible to have multiple suppliers again.
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Monday 29th April 2024 17:05 GMT Gene Cash
Re: Great news!
They are launching on Falcon 9s, but they just are not saying so.
Falcon 9 launches Galileo navigation satellites https://spacenews.com/falcon-9-launches-galileo-navigation-satellites/
Neither the European Commission nor the European Space Agency publicized the launch in advance. In statements after the successful launch, European officials studiously avoided mentioning how the satellites were launched.
“2 new Galileo satellites successfully launched last night,” Thierry Breton, EU commissioner for the internal market, posted on social media April 28. “Awaiting Ariane6, the 2024 launches are crucial for Galileo’s resilience, robustness and continuity of its civilian & military applications.”
That statement came the closest to acknowledging why the satellites were launching on Falcon 9. The retirement of the Ariane 5, loss of access to the Soyuz rocket after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine more than two years ago and delays in the introduction of the Ariane 6 left Europe without its own means of launching Galileo satellites, a situation dubbed a “launcher crisis” by ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher.
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Monday 29th April 2024 15:52 GMT StrangerHereMyself
Rehashed
The Ariane 6 is basically a rehashed Ariane 5 with the launch price cut in half to disguise the enormous profit taking and inefficiency of the Ariane program. I'm absolutely stunned it took them this long to get it to fly.
When Germany finally starts to fly its own rockets we'll see the wheels coming off the Ariane program and ESA members each going their own way. Hell, even the UK has some skin in this game with the Cornwall Spaceport and the Orbex small launcher company.
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Monday 29th April 2024 17:32 GMT Wingnut29
Re: Rehashed
you're a tad out of date/incorrect there.
cornwall was a runway before VO went into administration and orbex is a vertical launcher only capable of 250kg to polar orbit from scotland, when they get round to launching anything more than they're pr pyschobable. rfa (aka 'the germans') will launch upto 1.5t from shetland but they will max out at 4t to leo from norway, so hardly in competition with ariane 6.
apples and boiled sweets as they say...
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Tuesday 30th April 2024 03:10 GMT MachDiamond
Re: Rehashed
"cornwall was a runway before VO went into administration"
The Virgin Orbit 747 has been repainted, had the rocket mount removed and it sitting at the Mojave Air and Space port with Stratolaunch livery on it now. Stratosaurus Rex/Birdzilla may wind up parked and the Talon hypersonic craft mated to the 747 instead.
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Tuesday 30th April 2024 12:44 GMT StrangerHereMyself
Re: Rehashed
Launchers tend to grow once the company has demonstrated its capabilities. Rocket Lab for example is building a Falcon 9 class vehicle as we speak.
I'm pretty sure Orbex and RFA will move towards larger, reusable rockets once they get their small launchers into orbit. Likely both rockets will benefit from government support since space is very much a flag-waving thing.
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