XPost: alt.space, alt.politics, alt.defense
XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250306-%F0%9F%94%B4european-rocket-ariane-6-launches-on-first-commercial-mission
Europe's new heavy-lift rocket Ariane 6 carried out its first
commercial mission on Thursday, launching without a hitch and
deploying a French military reconnaissance satellite into orbit.
The success of the mission means that Europe can now put
large satellites into orbit on its own, as Russia pulled its
Soyuz rockets after invading Ukraine in 2022.
. . .
Good !
France and the EU will need their own capabilities
here now that the USA isn't as eager to open it's
wallet. Mil-sats will fill any future gaps in US
intel input.
Ariane-6 can lift BIG things ... but modern tech
can now produce SMALL sats that can still serve
military/survival purposes. This means smaller
cheaper launch systems can be used to add to the
EU defense grid as well.
This means that Germany and Italy and Poland and
the Czechs and even the Nordics can become players
without breaking the bank. I hear of start-ups in
the news every so often - some use solid-fuel boosters
and maybe a small liquid-fueled 2nd stage and can
loft like six or ten football-sized LEO sats. They
can be comms, they can be specialty surveillance.
Oh, easy for Russia or China to target a BIG sat,
they've proven it, but dozens/hundreds of little
ones - not so easy. Safety in numbers ...
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