Private German rocket makes history, reaches orbit from European soil • Hacker News Board

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

#391

Post by ben_w » Sun, Sep 06, 2026, 12:27 PM UTC

ben_w wrote: post #368

ericmay wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No we don’t know that the current administration is negotiating in bad faith. That’s your opinion and one that doesn’t really reflect how the world of diplomacy and interactions between nation states work. Why would you waste time and money when any deal in which would be negotiated in bad faith requires Ukrainian participation? Second, yes the Budapest Memorandum was violated. Why didn’t the other parties do anythin…

> Second, yes the Budapest Memorandum was violated. Why didn’t the other parties do anything or immediately declare war on Russia besides just the United States? The immediate reaction of the other parties was roughly the same as the USA's immediate reaction. > Here’s a better question though: why didn’t the EU do something when Russia violated it? The EU isn't party to the Budapest Memorandum. > Is your gear ready?…

> The immediate reaction of the other parties was roughly the same as the USA's immediate reaction.

Other Western parties, I should have written.

Wikipedia list of parties to the Budapest Memorandum: Belarus, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Russia, United States, United Kingdom

Oh look, Germany, France, Poland, Finland, they are not on that list. And yet, still supply more support to Ukraine than the US government is currently supplying.

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

#392

Post by ctrlkctrls » Sun, Sep 06, 2026, 12:44 PM UTC

MYEUHD wrote: post #245

scotty79 wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does it compare to Alaska? Wasn't it purchased as a colony from russians to exploit Alaskan gold with complete disreagrd for opinion of the native population?

Alaska is a colony is well, and so is the rest of North America. We don't think of the US and Canada as colonies because the vast majority of the native population was genocided.

Everywhere is a colony if the out of Africa theory is to be believed. The native peoples displaced by Europeans migrating from Asia.

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

#393

Post by ryeats » Sun, Sep 06, 2026, 1:02 PM UTC

anonymars wrote: post #247

mag7269 wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an American, I welcome a multi-polar world where Europe pulls its weight when it comes to science, technology and engineering! More so in geopolitical matters. It’s always been very draining for one empire or nation to maintain world peace. The 19th century was Pax Britannica, the 20th, after WW2, was Pax Americana, we can now hope that Pax AmEuropana can offer a counter to the crazy rapid growth of Asia and also…

What rewards do you think the US is going to gain from this path it has begun to travel? Do you think it was all some noble charity case? The UK is likely to be an illustrative example, so it's apt you mentioned it

You're arguing US imperialism is the best interest for the whole world. It was definitely after WW2 considering the alternative but the only way to keep the US honest is a little friendly competition.

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

#394

Post by bdauvergne » Sun, Sep 06, 2026, 1:26 PM UTC

logifail wrote: post #270

num42 wrote: post #267

Congrats! How come European companies still haven't managed to match SpaceX's capabilities? Europe has an incredible talent pool, especially in aerospace, and some of the world’s best expertise in precision engineering, instrumentation, sensors, avionics, and other hard-tech subsystems. A huge amount of the expertise and supply chain for these components is concentrated in Europe. So what are we missing? Is it mainly…

> So what are we missing? There are some (many?) European companies which are considered as least as much as a jobs program as anything else. In 2018, Alain Charmeau (in)famously expressed frustration with SpaceX in an interview with Der Spiegel and rejected reusability with these words: “Let us say we had ten guaranteed launches per year in Europe and we had a rocket which we can use ten times—we would build exactly…

That's the only good answer of the thread. ArianeGroup is mainly the SLBM program of France and after that a way to maintain european know-how in rocket building and for nearly 20 years was the main space launch company in the world before Space-X. All those companies success and failures (be that Space-X or ArianeGroup) are linked to their political environment and how much money can be spent on their launch market. Space-X could use the technique of launching many and fail as much because they had the contracts to do it and years of tangential R&D by Nasa. The ecosystem explains everything and the relative intelligence of american or european engineers nearly nothing.

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

#395

Post by bdauvergne » Sun, Sep 06, 2026, 1:31 PM UTC

bahmboo wrote: post #281

FYI Norway is not in the EU. Whether they are European is a matter of perspective and I'm not touching that subject any further! Deutschland is in the EU.

All the scandinavians I met in France clearly think they are as much european as me, I don't know where you find yours.

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

#396

Post by skybrian » Sun, Sep 06, 2026, 1:32 PM UTC

logifail wrote: post #270

num42 wrote: post #267

Congrats! How come European companies still haven't managed to match SpaceX's capabilities? Europe has an incredible talent pool, especially in aerospace, and some of the world’s best expertise in precision engineering, instrumentation, sensors, avionics, and other hard-tech subsystems. A huge amount of the expertise and supply chain for these components is concentrated in Europe. So what are we missing? Is it mainly…

> So what are we missing? There are some (many?) European companies which are considered as least as much as a jobs program as anything else. In 2018, Alain Charmeau (in)famously expressed frustration with SpaceX in an interview with Der Spiegel and rejected reusability with these words: “Let us say we had ten guaranteed launches per year in Europe and we had a rocket which we can use ten times—we would build exactly…

Perhaps this “jobs program” could be seen as preserving industrial capacity? With military contractors, for example, it’s apparently a problem when they’re used to build a stockpile and then they shut down because there are no more orders.

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

#397

Post by notahacker » Sun, Sep 06, 2026, 1:41 PM UTC

hn_submit wrote: post #385

Tuna-Fish wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You seem to be confused about what organizations do what. ESA neither launches or builds rockets. They are an end-user, and they own the launch infrastructure in Kourou. Both these roles will exist long after Ariane is gone. Arianespace does not build rockets. It's a launch services provider, they purchase the rockets from other companies, handle all the logistics and manage the launchpad. It's in no way married to A…

If national governments can launch their own payloads without having to go through ESA or ArianeSpace it'll undermine the latter's position. They may even become competitors. Italy accused the French-based ArianeSpace of deliberately taking launches away from the Italian-build Vega rocket in favor of the French-build Ariane rockets. They've now left ArianeSpace and are selling the rockets themselves and using ESA's i…

ESA funds and has awarded commercial contracts with ISAR and numerous other launch companies/consortia. Andoya spaceport is optimised for launching to polar orbits and not a realistic competitor to the ArianeSpace spaceport in French Guiana, much like SaxaVord and other spaceports based on the European continent. Vega is also an ESA-funded international collaboration project which actually started off managed by ArianeSpace, and the next generation of Avio-managed Vega rockets will be integrated in French Guiana and flown from ArianeSpace's spaceport...

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

#398

Post by anonymars » Sun, Sep 06, 2026, 1:47 PM UTC

ryeats wrote: post #393

anonymars wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What rewards do you think the US is going to gain from this path it has begun to travel? Do you think it was all some noble charity case? The UK is likely to be an illustrative example, so it's apt you mentioned it

You're arguing US imperialism is the best interest for the whole world. It was definitely after WW2 considering the alternative but the only way to keep the US honest is a little friendly competition.

> You're arguing US imperialism is the best interest for the whole world

Where? Are you replying to the right message?

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

#399

Post by drstewart » Sun, Sep 06, 2026, 1:48 PM UTC

NicoJuicy wrote: post #359

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.

Belgian here. I think Trump definitely pushes allies away much faster than ever anticipated, that's probably the only achievement from the current administration. The alliance still stands, but it's hard to trust the US when the current president is constantly praising violent dictators and doesn't seem to grasp the concept of laws/rules + tries to blame everyone else + threatens to invade EU countries + the requirem…

Germany is the country where AfD is about to win big.

Good friends you're choosing there.

China has it's own launchers which shows it's decoupling from Europe now. It's over for Europe as countries race to be independent from them.

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

#400

Post by carlosjobim » Sun, Sep 06, 2026, 1:51 PM UTC

ben_w wrote: post #65

ericmay wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Just look at how today the USA tried to hand over land of Ukraine to Putin 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, eve…

> 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…

Yes, certainly your beloved leaders will nuke a foreign city to help you win an internet argument against a stranger...