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from the government-efficiency-vs-private-enterprise-disruption dept.
Europe is starting to freak out about the launch dominance of SpaceX:
A little more than a week ago, the European Space Agency[(ESA)] announced an initiative to study "future space transportation solutions." Basically, the agency provided about $600,000, each, to three companies—ArianeGroup, Avio, and Rocket Factory Augsburg—to study competitive launch systems from 2030 onward.
[...] there now appears to be increasing concern in Europe that the Ariane 6 and Vega-C rockets will not be competitive in the launch market of the near future. This is important, because while member states of the European Space Agency pay for development of the rockets, after reaching operational status, these launch programs are expected to become self-sufficient by attracting commercial satellite launches to help pay the bills.
Economic ministers in France and Italy have now concluded that the launch market has changed dramatically since 2014, when the Ariane 6 and Vega-C rockets were first designed. According to a report in Le Figaro newspaper, the ministers believe the ability of these new European rockets to compete for commercial launch contracts has significantly deteriorated since then.
It would seem that ESA's payback plan didn't expect an agile competitor to disrupt the entire market with efficiencies that governments seem unable to match. But, there's more.
SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet in talks for a place in the UK’s $6.9 billion ‘Project Gigabit’:
Elon Musk’s SpaceX is in talks with the United Kingdom for the company’s Starlink satellite unit to potentially earn funding as a part of the government’s new $6.9 billion internet infrastructure program, CNBC confirmed.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday March 24 2021, @06:44AM (9 children)
They need to get out of the way and allow their industrial sector to build rockets and such.
And if their industrial sector can't do that, then buy a lot of Falcon 9s or whatever. For what they burned on Ariane 6, they could have launched a bunch of stuff into space.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 24 2021, @06:58AM (3 children)
Foolish pride is a much bigger problem in Europe than the US. In Europe the bureaucrat toll collector is king. It's a horrible place to do business, unless you're a bureaucrat. I can see why the sane ones all want to come here. They just want to make a living without spending six hours a day on bookkeeping.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 24 2021, @07:04AM
Add another 3 hours on various diversity/sustainability reports
(Score: 1) by shrewdsheep on Wednesday March 24 2021, @08:23AM (1 child)
I cannot really judge the bureaucracy but there is politics as well. IMO this is what makes Europe so ineffective. Nothing can move forward without consent from all involved countries, especially financial interests which makes projects sluggish and expensive. As a recent example look at the vaccine procurement in Europe. Companies don't take the European commission seriously as they know the internal bickering will bail them out. ESA is another prime example: campuses all over Europe, strict financial per country quotas, no political accountability.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by PiMuNu on Wednesday March 24 2021, @09:55AM
Boeing is another prime example: campuses all over US, strict financial per state quotas, no political accountability.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by engblom on Wednesday March 24 2021, @07:08AM (1 child)
Europe needs to get stuff up in space and if they buy rides from SpaceX, it means that many millions of euro are drained out of EU. An European space vehicle would mean that these millions are staying in EU and stimulating the economy here and some of it is coming back in form of taxes. Now they would just need to develop some re-usability too, like SpaceX did and even the private market might be interested.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday March 24 2021, @02:23PM
So what's more important? Getting stuff up in space? Or trace amounts of euros leaving the ESA's member countries? My take is that being part of the coming development of space will generating far more stimulation and genuine value for the ESA's members than yet another token launch vehicle.
If the private market isn't interested, then it's a waste. The program will only last as long as the funding does.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by PiMuNu on Wednesday March 24 2021, @10:04AM (2 children)
> There is no longer a point to a public space launch vehicle.
Defence.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday March 24 2021, @02:24PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 25 2021, @12:44PM
Military rockets are necessarily single use by design.