4 ms·
Isn't the price offered by Arianespace subsidized though? I could imagine that the EU is ok to subsidize to get market share in the private market but wouldn't
by thmsths 9y ago
Isn't the price offered by Arianespace subsidized though? I could imagine that the EU is ok to subsidize to get market share in the private market but wouldn't be too happy to subsidize the US department of defense.
- nickik 9y agoThe price is not subsidized to a huge degree. What they do is pay a lot for the development and infrastructure. The Arian 6 will get like 3 Billion and many of its parts have a history of development by government investment. Arianespace might come close to competing on price, but they can't compete on cost.
- kuschku 9y agoOnly development is subsidized, ongoing costs are not. The US could have easily contracted to Arianespace for these flights (especially as Arianespace is already a project of a close ally), and could have saved around 300 million USD for every single launch, of which there were thousands over the time frame that this was possible. We’re seriously talking about dozens to hundreds of billions USD that could have been saved.