Spaceflight 🚀🇪🇺 The announced delay ⏳🥱 of #Ariane6 left #SpaceX as the only viable alternative https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-signs-security-deal-us-launch-satellite-spacex-elon-musk/
The #EuropeanUnion 🇪🇺 announced plans to launch 170 #satellites 🛰️ into #orbit between 2025 and 2027 https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/oct/15/billionaire-space-race-can-bezoss-project-kuiper-catch-up-to-musks-starlink
Launched 🚀 by... ?
Mostly Ariane, the price doesn't matter
> 50% SpaceX
ULA
ISRO
Poll ended at .
"Ambitious but achievable. Always. Of course, big dreams 💭 must always be kept within the bounds of what is technically feasible and financially 💰 affordable." https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Saturn_s_moon_Enceladus_top_target_for_ESA
🤔 So they won't launch it with #Ariane6 as of the #LaunchCost ? 🙄
Saturn's moon Enceladus top target for ESA
A fresh, icy crust hides a deep, enigmatic ocean. Plumes of water burst through cracks in the ice, shooting into space. An intrepid lander collects samples and analyses them for hints of life.ESA has started to turn this scene into a reality, devising a mission to investigate an ocean world around either Jupiter or Saturn. But which moon should we choose? What should the mission do exactly? A team of expert scientists has delivered their findings.
The lack of #competition has made it difficult to hash out a competitive offer with the #EU 🇪🇺 https://www.politico.eu/article/iris-2-eu-satellite-project-germany-delay/
The war in #Ukraine 🇺🇦 has left a deep impression on Europeans, and they have seen the value of secure #satellite 🛰️ Internet. The difficulty is in how to get there. The continent does not have a reusable rocket like #SpaceX's Falcon 9, nor the capacity to rapidly build hundreds of complex satellites. There is the challenge of coordinating such a complex endeavor across many different constituencies https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/05/europes-ambitious-satellite-internet-project-appears-to-be-running-into-trouble/
This article was updated on 16 April to remove mention of the constellation being a national alternative to #IRIS2. While that may still be the case, the evidence 🕵️ currently available suggests otherwise. https://europeanspaceflight.com/italy-moves-ahead-with-study-for-100-satellite-constellation
Here's the original title : #Italy 🇮🇹 moves ahead with study for national IRIS2 alternative https://europeanspaceflight.com/category/news/page/4/
#Germany 🇩🇪 has already made it known that it believes the #EU 🇪🇺 -backed #IRIS2 mega-constellation of super-secure satellites is too expensive 💰. A report in German newspaper #Handelsblatt suggests that the German army (#Bundeswehr) is backing an alternate orbiting satellite system. At the moment it is unclear whether Italy will ‘go it alone’ and sidestep #IRIS2 https://www.advanced-television.com/2025/04/17/italy-joins-germany-in-iris2-alternate-thoughts
