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#europe#launch#rocket#ukraine#european#french#russia#usa#china#together

Discussion (89 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews

godwinson__4-82 minutes ago
A good historical nugget is that the Americans got a huge leg up in the space race by importing the Germans who worked on the V-2 program.

Germans killed Soviets by the millions. If you were a German of value (like a rocket scientist) you were eager to surrender to the Americans before the Soviets could get their hands on you.

If you were the Americans, you distrusted the Soviets already, so it was a win-win.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Paperclip

hypferabout 2 hours ago
This is a huge success, but it I think also tells us that the EU is further decoupling itself from the US. Slowly but steadily.

Which is obviously the right thing to do, but it's interesting that it's not just a hypothetical anymore.

rexskimmerabout 1 hour ago
They started developing this rocket in the late 2010s, way before the current US craziness (or the current level of craziness anyway). Independent access to space is always desirable for countries that can muster the resources, but this is just one of many companies that appeared back then as a response to SpaceX's initial success.
Eupolemos42 minutes ago
Eh, you can split us Europeans up into two camps; those who do not want to see the problem and those who couldn't look away.

The second camp saw the craziness when the later Bush was elected a second time.

Danox7 minutes ago
If they haven’t gotten the message yet, they never will congratulations, plan on doing more because you’re gonna have to.
clickety_clack25 minutes ago
Coupled or uncoupled, an equal relationship between the US and the EU is much healthier. Europe should have an economy, military and industrial capacity similar to the US.
petcat12 minutes ago
Unfortunately Europe has put itself in a position of global dependence which is why they find themselves so easy to squeeze by USA and China. And they really just can't believe it. And also now facing the prospect of a Russian invasion on their eastern borders.
mlmonkey17 minutes ago
Are we forgetting about Ariane?
Fordec4 minutes ago
Launched from South America, not Europe.
hn_submitabout 1 hour ago
Multiple European nations gaining their own independent launch capabilities will merely result in the sinking of ESA and ArianeSpace. Look forward to lots of infighting in the near future.
Tuna-Fish29 minutes ago
ESA is going to remain on the mission/payload side. ArianeSpace makes sense as a launch services provider handling everything that's not the rocket. ArianeGroup (the company that actually builds the rockets) will just become the French rocket company that will end up competing with the Italian and German ones.
yellowappleabout 1 hour ago
The EU already had quite a bit of non-EU spaceflight capability, both in terms of rockets and launch sites.
decimalenoughabout 1 hour ago
I think you meant non-US?

Although Ariane's rockets are wildly expensive and uncompetitive compared to SpaceX.

Danox5 minutes ago
They are right now, but if Japan can do it, and China can do it so can Europe and by the way, so can Australia, New Zealand and Canada they have the abilities they just have to have the will and if they haven’t learned anything recently, they better develop the will. Once again congratulations.
sidewndr46about 1 hour ago
No, counterintuitively Ariane is non-EU. It launches from South America
samrusabout 1 hour ago
Cost decreases with scale. Spacex was also wildly expensive, it grew up thanks to government assistance
manlymuppetabout 1 hour ago
I think we are stronger together. European technology has been critical to many important American space missions, and that should continue to be the case.

An ecosystem where we develop things independently is one where everyone loses.

hypferabout 1 hour ago
Yes, definitely, but being together by choice instead of by necessity is vastly preferable.

Especially given that recent history has shown us that we're back to "power" being the only language spoken.

__

Rel: The ecosystem thing.

I would challenge that, because if there's one thing where the US has had absurd leverage over the EU (and world, for that matter), then it's tech ecosystems.

A healthy ecosystem would not be owned by SV/US alone.

So right now, we're not really "strong together" but rather weakly dependent. That should be remediated, and decoupling like this is exactly the tool for that.

epsabout 1 hour ago
> I think we are stronger together

That's pretty damn obvious to everyone with a half of brain, yet here we are being pulled apart.

samrusabout 1 hour ago
I dont think the EU is stronger when they get bullied and undermined by trump, or whichever american president decides to dust off trump's playbook in the future
zorminoabout 1 hour ago
I think the stronger together argument implies good faith co-operation on both sides
cyanydeezabout 1 hour ago
The opinion of american billionaires is driving this.
atherton94027about 1 hour ago
The french always had Ariane??
weinzierlabout 1 hour ago
The Ariane is as much German as it is French. It is considerably Italian too.
ph4rsikalabout 2 hours ago
It is indeed a huge success but it also underlines how far ahead the rest of the world is.
hypferabout 2 hours ago
I'd honestly rather like to use this opportunity to talk about that this is a success than returning to our regularly scheduled doomer loop.

A rocket launched into orbit from Norway. That's insane progress and worth celebrating.

ericmayabout 2 hours ago
I'd prefer to use this opportunity to talk about this as a success as well without this America decoupling nonsense doomer loop too.

Does anyone know if folks in Germany are posting about the huge ego and phallus shaped memes for this company doing something that SpaceX and Blue Origin were also doing? I'm guessing not, because the lens is "decoupling" and not "America bad" like so many felt inclined to report when our private companies were successfully launching rockets.

Anyway, congrats to the team at Isar. I like to celebrate these successes around the world as further space exploration, colonization, science, and economic development benefit us as a species and there is a lot of room for a lot of competitors.

Barrin92about 1 hour ago
only four countries in the world have private/commercial space launch capacity, and SpaceX towers over everyone else so I'd say this is doing pretty alright compared to the rest of the world
shevy-javaabout 2 hours ago
That's good. The way how the USA changed makes any "alliance" void. Just look at how today the USA tried to hand over land of Ukraine to Putin, with incompetents such as Kushner. Agent Krasnov is serving all but the US population here - and he regards the EU as an enemy in addition to that. So, no more support to that crazy country. Canadians learned that lesson, the EU still has to learn it.
ericmayabout 1 hour ago
> Just look at how today the USA tried to hand over land of Ukraine to Putin

Was it the land that Russia currently controls and Ukraine is very unlikely to retake? There's a spectrum between ideological behavior and pragmatic behavior. If Ukraine gives up this land and achieves peace, maybe it's worth it. I'm not suggesting it definitely is but at least the US is trying to negotiate or find some sort of solution, even if it's not going well.

In retrospect the US should have prepared for war and been willing to fight to uphold what was agreed to with Russia but that would have been a hard sell.

> So, no more support to that crazy country.

Nah Europe will still support it. Nothing will change there. But if you want things to change, we can completely withdraw from NATO, move bases back from Europe where we see fit, and un-sanction Russia while no longer providing support to Ukraine in any fashion and no longer sell weapons to Europe. That would be a disaster for Europe, which is why I tend to think comments like this are either ignorant, or pro-Russia/Iran/China with the intent to further inflame whatever tensions exist.

ben_wabout 1 hour ago
> Was it the land that Russia currently controls and Ukraine is very unlikely to retake? There's a spectrum between ideological behavior and pragmatic behavior. If Ukraine gives up this land and achieves peace, maybe it's worth it. I'm not suggesting it definitely is but at least the US is trying to negotiate or find some sort of solution, even if it's not going well.

It wasn't the US's decision to make, certainly not without having talked to Ukraine.

And right now, well, this war will continue until one of them runs out of money. The EU currently appears to consider Ukrainian sovereignty in this war to be in their own national interests, so they will keep funding it. Who will support the Russian economy in the same way?

> Nah Europe will still support it. Nothing will change there. But if you want things to change, we can completely withdraw from NATO, move bases back from Europe where we see fit, and un-sanction Russia while no longer providing support to Ukraine in any fashion and no longer sell weapons to Europe. That would be a disaster for Europe, which is why I tend to think comments like this are either ignorant, or pro-Russia/Iran/China with the intent to further inflame whatever tensions exist.

You, and many like you, really need to stop thinking Trump's behaviour is something that can be easily undone. You write to suggest dissenting voices are pro-China: Trump's actions have already forced many in the EU to consider the USA to be a bigger threat than China.

This isn't us liking China, we think poorly of their human rights record etc., it's just that the USA has fallen that far in our eyes.

Just to make it specific: Which city do you live in? I want you to imagine it getting actually, literally, nuked by French or British missiles in response to the USA doing what Trump keeps saying he'll do to Canada or Greenland.

Actual nukes.

I hope that will stay imagination.

Trump has a lot of levers he could pull that would be de facto acts of war besides annexing allies like he says he wants to. Ordering all the tech companies to stop providing services overnight, even that might do it given current dependencies.

JohnTHallerabout 1 hour ago
Russia's word has been ironclad each time it's been given to Ukraine previously. It surely would be the same this time.
artisinal25 minutes ago
I wonder whether the Sámi people have been consulted or compensated for the use of their traditional lands as a rocket launch site. Given Norway’s long history of suppressing Sámi people and their land rights, I'd be interested to know how that was handled.
blini-kotabout 2 hours ago
Plesetsk is also european soil.
kylecazarabout 2 hours ago
They're using "Europe" as political shorthand for Western Europe
mrtksn32 minutes ago
Europe is a vibe based concept, a place can be European or not depending on the vibes. Even the east west central etc. are completely vibe based. Portugal for example is Eastern European country, meanwhile Romania is central according to some textbooks.
seszettabout 2 hours ago
Kourou as well, although maybe a different definition of European.
sisveabout 2 hours ago
Would maybe call it European territory but not soil. But yeah, as you say it's how you define it.
capocasaabout 2 hours ago
This is such a breath of fresh air
GoGermanyabout 1 hour ago
o/
ChrisArchitectabout 2 hours ago
consumer45140 minutes ago
Thanks for that video. Super cool that they got pro streamers NSF involved.

Really interesting that they will be launching from Canada as well.

MisterMunchkinabout 2 hours ago
How can it be the first European rocket? There’s the ESA! Are you telling me we have all these organisations and none of them have ever launched from their own continent?
loegabout 2 hours ago
Europe isn't on or remotely near the equator, which is somewhat favorable for launches.
smitty1eabout 2 hours ago
> The German company Isar Aerospace launched its Spectrum rocket from Andøya Space Center in northern Norway today

To speculate, they could be targeting a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molniya_orbit

Achterlangsabout 2 hours ago
ESA launches French Guiana. Since it is cheaper to launch closer to the equator with the extra speed provided by the earth's rotation.
sisveabout 2 hours ago
For satellites that should be in Sun-synchronous orbit Andøy is a great place to launch from
artisinalabout 2 hours ago
Really comes in handy to still have a couple of colonies near the equator.

It's also better to have the massive amounts of emissions far away from your own population.

tristanjabout 2 hours ago
French Guiana is not a colony, it is a region of France. People who live there have the same constitutional rights as anyone living in mainland France.

It has the same status in France as Alaska does in the US.

BSDobelixabout 2 hours ago
>Really comes in handy to still have a couple of colonies near the equator.

>It's also better to have the massive amounts of emissions far away from your own population.

That's the dumbest comment i read since a long time, thanks.

hypferabout 2 hours ago
> How can it be the first European rocket?

Not at all. You've missed the "Private" in the headline. And that it apparently is.

xixixaoabout 2 hours ago
Article says Western Europe, but Norway is in Northern Europe.

“First rocket to launch from Europe outside Russia” would have been perfectly correct.

setoptabout 1 hour ago
In the political sense, «Western Europe» is typically taken to be «NATO Europe», and «Eastern Europe» is «Warsaw Pact Europe». Which is different from a strict geographic definition.
dmaaabout 2 hours ago
They launch from Guiana afaik
echoangleabout 2 hours ago
French Guiana to be exact, which is a different country
tristanjabout 1 hour ago
Edit: Misread
mytailorisrichabout 2 hours ago
The French used to launch their rockets from Algeria. Their first satellite was launched from there. Since then they moved to (French) Guiana.

The UK launched from Australia.

millerampabout 2 hours ago
Made with imipolex g?
verzaliabout 2 hours ago
Fantastic job!
GoGermanyabout 1 hour ago
o/
shevy-javaabout 2 hours ago
The sooner Europe cuts itself off from the US crazy billionaires, the better - on all levels (software and manufacture processes are the two biggest issues). Today we already could see the US surrender team crawling up to dictator Putin. Enough is enough - agent Krasnov needs to be isolated.
manlymuppetabout 1 hour ago
I don’t think America is so far gone. We have issues sure, but I for one still believe that we can be better.

Trump be damned, Europe and America are stronger when they work together.

samrusabout 1 hour ago
Americans have to hope that the US will move past trumo and not repeat that mistake, but for europeans its most prudent to prepare for a world where such a corrupt wannabe distator doesnt have have that much leverage over them.

The US and europe would be stronger together if the US acted in good faith. Absent that, decoupling is the right choice

sbuttgereit32 minutes ago
Or maybe Europe just thinks if you can't beat 'em, join 'em:

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/05/world/europe/germany-afd-...

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hn_submitabout 1 hour ago
The Germans will now distance themselves from ArianeSpace and go their own way. Let the infighting begin!!