2d ago

German company set for first commercial rocket launch from Europe

www.newscientist.com

Preparations are under way for a rocket test flight in Norway that could make history and give Europe greater independence from the market leader in orbital launches, the United States.

Isar Aerospace says it is planning to launch on 24 March between 12.30pm and 3.30pm CET, weather permitting.

57 comments

I am so excited. It feels like my country is finally moving and doing something. After being dormant for decades. Yay!
- The sleeper (Europe as a whole) must awaken!
  
  I think it finally has. For the first time ever, I feel like Europe is actually doing something. It’s awesome.
  
  *For the first time in 80 years...
  We know how to do stuff, it's just that we thought the world a friendlier place.
  
  I think we are on the same page tho. Let’s not get pedantic about the wording. :) You’re right tho. It’s not like Europe hasn’t been doing anything EVER. But it certainly hasn’t during my lifetime. So that’s my reference.
  
  True!
  Every post mustn't always be a rebuttal :-)
  
  I'm not quite that optimistic.
  Yes, things are happening, but imo these are still mostly reactions to external pressures. There is no structural change or politicians that have the quality to properly lead.
  As an example here in Germany we recently approved a huge amount of new debt for investments in infrastructure and weapons. But the leaked contract negotiations for the coalition of our next government includes tax gifts in the form of lower tax rates for eating out, ev subsidies for the car industry, and higher pension benefits for mothers payed out of the regular budget (while we already have a unsustainable pension system).
  Also in the above mentioned decision to take on new debt we decided that defense spending above 1% of GDP doesn't count towards the regular budget, but can be financed through debt separately. Which on the one hand might be nice, since right now we might invest more. But imo setting the limit at 1% kind of shows how much we actually value it. We could have set it higher and committed to sustained change, but this way leaves more room open in the regular budget for the gifts mentioned above.
  
  The threshold was renegotiated to 1.5% by the Greens
  
  I was under the impression that this was one of their demands at some point, but it didn't make it into the final compromise.
  Von den zu berücksichtigenden Einnahmen aus Krediten ist der Betrag abzuziehen, um den die Verteidigungsausgaben, die Ausgaben des Bundes für den Zivil- und Bevölkerungsschutz sowie für die Nachrichtendienste, für den Schutz der informationstechnischen Systeme und für die Hilfe für völkerrechtswidrig angegriffene Staaten 1 vom Hundert im Verhältnis zum nominalen Bruttoinlandsprodukt übersteigen [emphasis mine]
  Source (german), pdf warning. This is the official text.
  Additionally it's not even purely defense spending that they can exclude, but also some related costs. Making even more space in the regular budget for unrelated expenses.
  
  I‘m also in Germany so I know. But still things are moving and it’s a good thing. How effective that will be? That’s another story. We can’t predict the future. But I’m tired of our stagnation so at this point, I see things happening and I’m happy. Better than doing nothing at all, isn’t it?
  But I agree that the welfare state stuff is getting annoying. I will probably get hate for saying this, but I think that parents already get more than enough free money just for having children. To the point where some only have children to collect said money and spend it on themselves (cigarettes, alcohol, etc.) and neglecting their kids.
  Not all of course. But certainly some.
- Polluting the planet for money. You country has been doing it for quite a while.
  
  I agree with you but for different reasons. The rockets can be considered as pollution. But they have a purpose.
  We should focus on how we abandoned nuclear energy and instead still use coal and even expand our coal mines. That is far worse in my opinion. We are literally coloured black on pollution maps, together with Poland. Meanwhile, France, the undisputed nuclear endorser in Europe, is the exact opposite.
  Our „Atomkraft, nein danke!“ attitude stinks.
  
  This whole "expanding coal mines" meme is a bit of a joke. Germany is now using a similar amount of coal as in the 60s, i.e. coal usage has dropped massively in recent years. If people hadn't voted for CxU this year, it probably would have dropped to (near) zero until 2030. We'll see what we get with the new coalition that is probably eager to keep coal usage stable, so those highly-subsidized coal jobs can remain. [Notably though, the same people who whine the most about the death of nuclear also whine the most about the impending death of coal.]
  And you can criticize the (CxU!) decision to phase out nuclear first, rather than coal, but coal does have advantages in that it is both cheaper to operate than nuclear and it is possible to regulate the amount of energy produced within days, [so using coal to avert the effects of the dreaded dunkelflaute is actually possible with coal but not with nuclear.]
  The old nuclear plants didn't have their major checkup for 13 years either, which is essentially the entire time since the regulations were strengthened post-Fukushima. Getting them up to par would have necessitated major investments. In addition, the nuclear plants were dependent on fuel rods produced by a Russian-owned supply chain.

57 comments