#BBC 📆 3 March 2023 #ESA said the measures needed to address the failure meant that #Vega-C would not fly again until later this year.
The #Ariane-5, #Europe's biggest rocket 🚀, has only two more flights this year before it is withdrawn. And the Ariane-6 follow-on is not yet ready to fly 🥱.
The shortage of rides recently prompted the #ESA 🇪🇺 to purchase two American launches.
The #EU 🇪🇺 is having to seek assistance 🙏 to launch new versions of its navigation #satellites 🛰️ because the #Ariane 5 rocket, developed by #France 🇫🇷-based #ArianeGroup and launched from French #Guiana, is to be retired in the next months.
@nyrath@DenOfEarth@spaceflight Marketing. It committed Arianespace to the new launch vehicle and provided a sound-bite response to SpaceX undercutting them on price ("Ariane 6 will be cheaper if you wait a couple of years!") while upselling the remaining Ariane 5 LVs in the short term ... which has now bitten them as A6 isn't ready but A5 is discontinued.
@nyrath@DenOfEarth@spaceflight The joke on Arianespace is that Falcon 9 undermined Ariane 5 on launch price when priced as a disposable one-shot launcher, which is what Ariane 6 was priced to compete with. Reusable Falcon 9 changed the game again. If Starship is successful then just as Arianespace are trying to make a semi-reusable A6 version they'll be as obsolescent as a DC-3 in the age of 747s.
@cstross
There is a difference between Arianespace and SpaceX. Though SpaceX should be commercial like Ariane I am sure that NASA holds their veto right and has all time prio access. Ariane instead has a transparent order list for access. If customers wait too long for a ride with falcon they agree to get earlier access to Ariane. Even on higher price.
You know these days whenever I hear from a young person that they have decided to pursue a career in marketing rather than, say, engineering or the arts or social science, I shed a tear.
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