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/
#Monopolies tend to become less efficient and less innovative over time, becoming "complacent", because they do not have to be efficient or innovative to compete in the marketplace https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopoly#Monopoly_and_efficiency
#France 🇫🇷 and #Germany 🇩🇪 fund the majority of the Ariane 6 rocket's development costs. So, by rule, most of the design and manufacturing of the #Ariane6 rocket must take place in those nations. This strangles #competition among subcontractors and suppliers. https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/05/europe-seeks-to-emulate-nasas-revolutionary-commercial-cargo-program/2/
People writing about #SpaceExploration are mostly cheerleaders 🥳 for the cause, rather than independent observers 🔬 keeping a watchful eye 👁️ on how our national monies 💰 are spent. https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucedorminey/2022/06/23/new-book-paints-bleak-picture-of-nasas-human-spaceflight-program/
Former Deputy #NASA Administrator #LoriGarver
Donald F Robertson@spaceflight Actually, Lori is one of the biggest advocates of human spaceflight, and even of the directions parts of NASA's human spaceflight endeavor are headed. It is the old guard that only want to copy what they perceive as the glory days of Apollo sixty years later that she fought at NASA and afterward.