OratioDirectaJul 10, 2024
European Commission

👨‍🚀🚀 3... 2... 1... Liftoff!

Last night, Europe's new heavy-lift rocket, #Ariane6, successfully made its inaugural flight.

Ariane 6 can launch both heavy and light payloads to a wide range of orbits for applications such as Earth observation, telecommunication, meteorology, science and navigation.

It is a key step towards secure and autonomous 🇪🇺 access to #space.

Congratulations to the teams at European Space Agency, National Centre for Space Studies, Arianespace on this success!

📷© ESA

Jul 10, 2024 at 3:19pmWeb
Show threadTim Ward ⭐🇪🇺🔶 #FBPEJul 10, 2024
@EUCommission Will it be commercially competitive against reusable rockets without any taxpayer subsidy?
Show threadUrwumpeJul 10, 2024
@TimWardCam @EUCommission why should it? That not the goal. The goal is having a European rocket. Do you see any European reuseable rocket, beyond the Ariane 6 successor concepts?
Show threadTim Ward ⭐🇪🇺🔶 #FBPEJul 10, 2024
@urwumpe @EUCommission Why is that a goal? Just flag waving?
Show threadUrwumpeJul 10, 2024
@TimWardCam @EUCommission just independence. Why should we exclusively rely on foreign or possibly unreliable service providers?
Show threadVeza85UEJul 10, 2024
@TimWardCam @EUCommission No, but is that a priority when the psycho billionaire who is commercially successful thanks to billions in subsidies and contracts with the US government huffs so much ketamine he ends up spewing Kremlin propaganda and sabotaging Ukraine by denying it the use of its satellites?
Does strategic public infrastructure need to be commercially successful?
Show threadTim Ward ⭐🇪🇺🔶 #FBPEJul 10, 2024

@Veza85UE @EUCommission I'm basically wondering why a new rocket for 2024 was developed as non-reusable.

Sure, the idea of landing a booster using its rocket engines was obviously pie-in-the-sky science fiction ... before it actually happened ... but that was several years and hundreds of launches ago now.

Show threadVeza85UEJul 10, 2024
@TimWardCam @EUCommission
Those are different questions. You asked if it's going to be commercially successful. I answered and asked you if strategic public infrastructure needs to be commercially successful. Does it?
Show threadTim Ward ⭐🇪🇺🔶 #FBPEJul 10, 2024
@Veza85UE @EUCommission Given the choice, and other things being equal-ish, it's surely better to build one that is in preference to one that isn't?
Show threadVeza85UEJul 10, 2024
@TimWardCam @EUCommission Autonomy is not one of those other things that are equal-ish (see: Soyuz).
Show threadgalarJul 10, 2024
@TimWardCam @EUCommission While that would be good to have, I think it's just one of the arguments. Another one might be managing strategic dependency. When Elon giveth, Elon might also taketh away when you most need it. Better to have own if possible.
Show threadTim Ward ⭐🇪🇺🔶 #FBPEJul 10, 2024
@galar @EUCommission Sure, but why design a new rocket for 2024 that's single use and disposable?
Show threadgalarJul 10, 2024
@TimWardCam @EUCommission Thats a good question and I do not have an answer.
Show threademmatonkinJul 10, 2024

@galar @TimWardCam @EUCommission
There are articles about this. They say it makes no sense economically in this instance given the numbers: https://www.space.com/europe-ariane-6-rocket-debut-launch#:~:text=But%20the%20Ariane%206%2C%20like,future%2C%20ESA%20officials%20have%20said.

They also say they are developing projects such as Maia and Themis with reusability in mind:
https://spacenews.com/europe-aims-to-end-space-access-crisis-with-ariane-6s-inaugural-launch/

So reusability is on their minds, but not for this application or at least not right now.

Europe's new Ariane 6 rocket launches on long-awaited debut mission (video)

At long last, the Ariane 6 has left the ground.

Space
Show threadgalarJul 10, 2024
@emmatonkin @TimWardCam @EUCommission Thanks for this. I assumed there was a reason.
Show threadErik Uden 🚩Jul 10, 2024
@EUCommission my sister was named after this rocket @Ariane hi
Show threadSalamiAerosJul 10, 2024
@ErikUden
thats a very dystopian thing to say
Show threadErik Uden 🚩Jul 10, 2024
@Saphiroth I was named after the viking
Show threadJakub GotlibJul 10, 2024

@EUCommission

Great. Finally.

Show threadSpaceflight 🚀Jul 10, 2024
@EUCommission how about the payload delivery ? And what's the launch cost compared to competitors ?