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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

#301

Post by peterfirefly »

____tom____ wrote: post #199

> "The findings identified an unintended opening of the vent valve How do they figure things like this out, after a rocket goes "boom"?

Something they might have is a lot of strain gauges around the rocket. They can tell if the rocket is bending and compressing (and how) -- but they are also essentially high-speed microphones. Valves make sounds (cause vibrations) and they are easy to spot if you have high-speed samples of your strain gauges. You can also triangulate distances if you have multiple strain gauges with synchronized high-speed samples.

It's good practice to dump data into several flash memories + transmit live. The live transmit is likely only a small summary of all the data that they capture -- distributed flash memory locations is a cheap way to increase the chances of getting useful data after a boom/crash (put them in orange water tight containers that can float + give them a beep-beep radio transmitter).

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

#302

Post by peterfirefly »

artisinal wrote: post #91

I wonder whether the Sámi people have been consulted or compensated for the use of their traditional lands as a rocket launch site. Given Norway’s long history of suppressing Sámi people and their land rights, I'd be interested to know how that was handled.

Did the Sami compensate the Indo-Europeans they displaced?

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

#303

Post by randomNumber7 »

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.

Is this sarcasm or do you still live in the 1980s?

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

#304

Post by peterfirefly »

sbuttgereit wrote: post #85
samrus wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Americans have to hope that the US will move past trumo and not repeat that mistake, but for europeans its most prudent to prepare for a world where such a corrupt wannabe distator doesnt have have that much leverage over them. The US and europe would be stronger together if the US acted in good faith. Absent that, decoupling is the right choice

Or maybe Europe just thinks if you can't beat 'em, join 'em: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/05/world/europe/germany-afd-...

Germany also has a crazy Communist party that is more in the pocket of Russia than AfD is -- but somehow that is almost never mentioned, not even in German media. It's quite big and influential.

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

#305

Post by peterfirefly »

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.

They mostly died from European diseases without ever meeting a European. It wasn't even planned or known by the European "visitors".

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

#306

Post by randomNumber7 »

vladms wrote: post #134
decimalenough wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you meant non-US? Although Ariane's rockets are wildly expensive and uncompetitive compared to SpaceX.

They are more expensive but the figures I have seen are 3x for Ariane 5 and 2x for Ariane 6 (source : https://spacenexus.us/guide/space-launch-cost-comparison ). Then, it depends on what you need to do. A 3x cost if you deploy a strategic constellation is fine. A 3x cost if you want to launch huge payloads for a Mars trip (I know costs were for LEO, just giving an example) is probably uncompetitive.

Any 2x or 3x cost for the same thing is uncompetitive in a free market.

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

#307

Post by peterfirefly »

sublimefire wrote: post #145
pjc50 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a colony even if it's legally part of France. (Had to check: free movement does apply to Guianans, but in the other direction it's not part of Schengen)

Ireland is not part of Schengen as well for example, it is because that is much harder to practically achieve for folks living on islands.

Ireland is not part of Schengen because the UK never was (and they wanted to keep the Common Travel Area).

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

#308

Post by peterfirefly »

nephihaha wrote: post #160
tristanj wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

French Guiana is not a colony, it is a region of France. People who live there have the same constitutional rights as anyone living in mainland France. It has the same status in France as Alaska does in the US.

For what it's worth, Metropolitan France used to claim Algeria wasn't a colony either.

Becoming French was an amazingly good reward for being pirates and slave traders.

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

#309

Post by kakacik »

peterfirefly wrote: post #293
panick21_ wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah the world piece like all the wars in the middle east, Vietnam, proxy conflicts all over the world and so on and so on. I'm not blaming the US for all of these wars but they also didn't prevent them. And the US did overthrow many democracies and often made things much worse, Iran being a great example, but there are many others. I could go on. Peace in Europe was maintained mostly by people in democracies general…

> Vietnam The US was actually on the right side in that one (just like in Korea). The Communists were not exactly the good guys and their "agricultural and personnel reforms" lead to drastically reduced food production and starvation and death. Blame the US for real things instead, such as supporting the wrong side in Afghanistan in the '80s or ensuring the survival of the Soviet Union in the '40s.

Tell it to cca 2 millions civilians that died in Vietnam as a direct result of failed US invasion (I really mean just civilians mostly bombed into oblivion, entire human lives list is around 3 million). As in, vast majority of them would be alive is US didn't try their failed adventure. Tonkin gulf is a classic US made up war for power mongering reasons.

Telling 'we're the good guys' while regularly bombing entire villages into oblivion with napalm on some vague suspicions ('we heard some gunshot when flying around so we blasted them' scenarios). My Lai and many others.

If this is how US population views their past fuckups then no wonder we are where we are, objectivity ain't easy if one is on the wrong side, isn't it.

Supporting wrong side in Afghanistan? Against Soviet invasion? Sometimes, often even there are no good sides.

If you guys didn't support Soviet union in 40s (which they vehemently denied since then but its their inferiority complex, the issue with russian mentality since forever), there would be no massive eastern front with most german losses and wehrmacht spread out too thinly, and D day would be crushed like nothing. History would be very different in Europe and globally.

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

#310

Post by chronc7403 »

drysine wrote: post #290
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…

>As an American, ... maintain world peace I can't believe people are saying that with straight face. How on Earth can you see all the wars that the US has started or had a hand in igniting and still think that?

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