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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

#341

Post by walrus01 »

sinuhe69 wrote: post #252

Congratulations! An immensely important achievement, I’d say. IMO, this success has a great implication for accessibility and sovereignty of the EU. Although ESA can launch from French Guiana, the spaceport is an ocean-away from Europe! That fact alone affects the cost and the launch cadence for Europe greatly. Now they prove they can launch directly from Norway with their own production from Munich and elsewhere and…

> The only way Europe can have a Starlink similar network is to launch it from their own soil and reuse the first stage.

Unfortunately I'm not aware of any properly funded euro alternative to starlink that that has progressed beyond the conceptual stage. Even the Canadian company telesat is far behind and has a serious debt problem. The two separate "Chinese starlink" LEO networks being built right now are ahead of telesat in functional satellites in orbit.

The Canadian government recently promised 2.3 billion to telesat for polar area services. Realistically maybe some European nations might have the best chance of success by absorbing telesat and continuing to pay MDA to build the satellites for the network.

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

#342

Post by thrance »

postingawayonhn wrote: post #152
xyzelement wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does it mean that? Europe has had a space agency for a while now. So this story isn't "Europeans finally started to launch for space" but a private European company chose to launch from a continental location. It's funny how we can't be celebrate a European achievement without trying to interpret it into relationship to the US.

Yes, they've had a space agency, but the only launchers are expensive legacy vehicles. This launch is a move towards lower cost and more frequent launches, that in the US are provided by SpaceX.

Ariane 5 was the cheapest option available for a long time, now they're a bit behind. But the ESA is now working on reusable rockets too, it seems, with their Themis program.

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

#343

Post by rbanffy »

panick21_ wrote: post #260
petcat wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This obsession started decades ago. Long before any recent politics. It's only gotten deeper and more intense recently.

What nonsense, most Europeans who are not politically super active might watch some US movies and consume things from the US like IPhones, but that doesn't mean obsessed. Most people are just mildly amused by US politics. You have serious selection bias if you think something else.

Perhaps, but most people don’t think about those things as US things. As for iPhones they were “designed in Cupertino” but made in China like almost everything else these days.

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

#344

Post by rbanffy »

ulfw wrote: post #253
petcat wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Hackernews is slowly turning into the same primitive social networking shit as X, Threads, insta, Linkedin. Time to get off of it I suppose

It is still the opinion of a very selected group. Even the rants are worth listening to.

In particular, I’m loving the obviously British comments (I deeply admire their ability to give the classiest insults).

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

#345

Post by flohofwoe »

bahmboo wrote: post #328
flohofwoe wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Whether they are European is a matter of perspective What? Scandinavia isn't part of Europe now? The "EU" is an organization, "Europe" is a continent. "European" includes everybody living in Europe (and yes, that even includes the Brits and most Russians).

Looking at a map Norway is on the same continent as Vietnam so that statement makes no sense. Please have some sort of context and understanding before making such statements. They "seem" to be part of Europe but they have historically wanted to have it both ways: one foot in one foot out. Go research it yourself I am probably totally wrong! HN comments are not a reference source.

There's a clearly defined border between the continents Europe and Asia.

I guess the confusion comes from thinking of "European" as some sort of cultural identity (which frankly doesn't exist, unless you only look at the last hundred years or so, and even that is generous), instead of the people living in the geographical region called "Europe".

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

#346

Post by rbanffy »

smnplk wrote: post #114
rexskimmer wrote: post #73

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.

One would think that ze germans would be among the first to be conquering space with all that german engineering.

> One would think that ze germans would be among the first to be conquering space

After the horrors of WWII, Europe decided it would rather do things collectively than each country doing its own thing. This resulted in wonderful things like Concorde, fast rail, Airbus, and Ariane. Europe became more than the sum of its parts.

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

#347

Post by phoronixrly »

bahmboo wrote: post #328
flohofwoe wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Whether they are European is a matter of perspective What? Scandinavia isn't part of Europe now? The "EU" is an organization, "Europe" is a continent. "European" includes everybody living in Europe (and yes, that even includes the Brits and most Russians).

Looking at a map Norway is on the same continent as Vietnam so that statement makes no sense. Please have some sort of context and understanding before making such statements. They "seem" to be part of Europe but they have historically wanted to have it both ways: one foot in one foot out. Go research it yourself I am probably totally wrong! HN comments are not a reference source.

You heard it here first folks, 'Norway is no more European than Vietnam.'

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

#348

Post by cccbbbaaa »

Cyph0n wrote: post #265
panick21_ wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its not an ex-colony, its part of France and the EU.

It was a French colonial subject as recently as the 20th century. Regardless, a launch facility within Europe seems much less riskier long term from a geopolitical standpoint.

Although you're right about the history of French Guiana, using that term to put on the same level as New Caledonia is nonsense. (Same goes for Martinique.)

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

#349

Post by cccbbbaaa »

rbanffy wrote: post #332
cccbbbaaa wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do not think so, but anyway, it is definitely not a proof that we are further decoupling ourselves from the US, which is the claim made in the root comment. France has launched rockets from France for decades. Being an ocean away does not make Kourou reliant on the US.

> Being an ocean away does not make Kourou reliant on the US. No, but it makes it vulnerable to the US.

“Vulnerable to the US” can mean so many things that it practically loses all meaning. Even with a launchpad in continental Europe, they have many ways to interfere with this project, from disrupting the supply chain to carpet bombing the launch site.

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

#350

Post by ben_w »

Danox wrote: post #113
ben_w wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Was it the land that Russia currently controls and Ukraine is very unlikely to retake? There's a spectrum between ideological behavior and pragmatic behavior. If Ukraine gives up this land and achieves peace, maybe it's worth it. I'm not suggesting it definitely is but at least the US is trying to negotiate or find some sort of solution, even if it's not going well. It wasn't the US's decision to make, certainly no…

The Ukraine is not gonna give up because that taco in the White House says so. And if he has any levers, he certainly doing a terrible job one distraction after another.

> And if he has any levers, he certainly doing a terrible job one distraction after another.

I think you may have misunderstood, my point about levers was there's may ways for him to *start* a war with everyone else in NATO, potentially without even realising that's what the lever would do.

Starting such a war is inherently him "doing a terrible job".

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