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Private German rocket makes history, reaches orbit from European soil

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Re: Private German rocket makes history, reaches orbit from European soil

#101
post #22

This is a huge success, but it I think also tells us that the EU is further decoupling itself from the US. Slowly but steadily. Which is obviously the right thing to do, but it's interesting that it's not just a hypothetical anymore.

Are we forgetting about Ariane?

Launched from South America, not Europe.

Re: Private German rocket makes history, reaches orbit from European soil

#102
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I really hate this revisionism of Elon as an extremely wealthy apartheid emerald mine heir who was a dumb guy who happened to get lucky at paypal and then stole all his money from the government while operating a car and rocket company. There is plenty to criticize about him, but SpaceX dramatically decreased cost to orbit which had reliance on Russian technology at the time.

Musk was raised affluent in apartheid-era South Africa, his father had some connection to Zambian emerald trading/mining, and Musk's companies have benefited enormously from public contracts and policy. He's not stupid.

He benefits enormously from the government but then acts like he doesn’t.

Re: Private German rocket makes history, reaches orbit from European soil

#103
A good historical nugget is that the Americans got a huge leg up in the space race by importing the Germans who worked on the V-2 program.

Germans killed Soviets by the millions. If you were a German of value (like a rocket scientist) you were eager to surrender to the Americans before the Soviets could get their hands on you.

If you were the Americans, you distrusted the Soviets already, so it was a win-win.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Paperclip

Re: Private German rocket makes history, reaches orbit from European soil

#105
post #22

This is a huge success, but it I think also tells us that the EU is further decoupling itself from the US. Slowly but steadily. Which is obviously the right thing to do, but it's interesting that it's not just a hypothetical anymore.

It is indeed a huge success but it also underlines how far ahead the rest of the world is.

So what should they do nothing? They have to get started somehow if Japan and China can do it so can Europe, and I think long-term once again, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand won’t be far behind…

Re: Private German rocket makes history, reaches orbit from European soil

#106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They started developing this rocket in the late 2010s, way before the current US craziness (or the current level of craziness anyway). Independent access to space is always desirable for countries that can muster the resources, but this is just one of many companies that appeared back then as a response to SpaceX's initial success.

Eh, you can split us Europeans up into two camps; those who do not want to see the problem and those who couldn't look away. The second camp saw the craziness when the later Bush was elected a second time.

one of those bush votes was to ensure he could clean up his own mess.

Re: Private German rocket makes history, reaches orbit from European soil

#107

Isar Aerospace launch into orbit [video] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ss1DUqLjecc ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49580325 )

Really beautiful with the rocket shining brightly upon the mountains as it lifts off

Re: Private German rocket makes history, reaches orbit from European soil

#108

A good historical nugget is that the Americans got a huge leg up in the space race by importing the Germans who worked on the V-2 program. Germans killed Soviets by the millions. If you were a German of value (like a rocket scientist) you were eager to surrender to the Americans before the Soviets could get their hands on you. If you were the Americans, you distrusted the Soviets already, so it was a win-win. https:/…

This went both ways https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Osoaviakhim

Re: Private German rocket makes history, reaches orbit from European soil

#109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh, you can split us Europeans up into two camps; those who do not want to see the problem and those who couldn't look away. The second camp saw the craziness when the later Bush was elected a second time.

one of those bush votes was to ensure he could clean up his own mess.

I’m curious what you mean by this. At face value it seems like a weird rationalization but I get the sense I’m not reading this correctly.
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