Meanwhile that psychopath billionaire from America shoots up one rocket after another.
I wish Arianespace were more innovative and competitive in the launch market. Maybe a new CEO will help shake things up?
Even in the highly volatile IT market big corporations move like dinosaurs. Upper management changes usually do not affect the actual business being done, except for management-related things. I don’t think aerospace corporations are any different.
So when do you think we’ll see the first reusable launch vehicle from Europe?
According to the Themis plans there will be a flight envelope test next year (reusable first stage).
CALLISTO was delayed to sometime in 2025 to 2026 (it’s a testing and evaluation platform so not an actually usable product but something that could lead to usable products in the future, it is also not entirely European).
There might also be Ariane Next replacing Ariane 6 sometime in the 2030s but will only be partially reusable.
All of those are in planning/development since 2020 (which is coincidentally the year in wich Falcon 9 became commercially available).
I wouldn’t have imagined that nearly a decade later, Falcon 9/Heavy would still be the only reusable orbital launch vehicle. The entire launch industry is playing catch up.
2020 (which is coincidentally the year in wich Falcon 9 became commercially available
Falcon 9 has been flying commercial missions since 2013, no? I think CASSIOPE was the first…
Falcon 9 has been flying commercial missions since 2013, no?
At least not with humans, according to this Article from 2020:
Space history has been made. On 30 May, SpaceX and NASA launched two astronauts to space aboard the Crew Dragon spacecraft, the first time a private company has flown humans into orbit, and the first crewed launch from the US since the end of the space shuttle programme in 2011.
“This is the first time that SpaceX has ever launched astronauts, and it’s also the first time that a government has trusted a commercial company to launch astronauts to orbit,” says space consultant Laura Forczyk. “It is a big deal.”
Ah, I didn’t realize you were referring exclusively to crewed missions. Yes, you are correct, the first crewed Falcon 9 launch was in 2020. The flew plenty of uncrewed commercial missions prior to that, though.
It seems like crewed European launch vehicles have a similarly slow timeline to reusable European launch vehicles.
