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Not much better. I believe a bunch (all?) of ESA launches go from French Guiana, so my guess is that might be the easiest place to go for orbital launches for

by NLips 9y ago

Not much better. I believe a bunch (all?) of ESA launches go from French Guiana, so my guess is that might be the easiest place to go for orbital launches for a British company.

xchaotic 9y ago
It used to be easier before Brexit. Nowadays the might bad well launch from Kazakhstan
- rospaya 9y ago
  ESA isn't an EU agency, it's independent.
  - twic 8y ago
    You could say the same about Euratom, but we're leaving that, because membership requires accepting the authority of the European Court of Justice in some areas. I wouldn't be surprised if there were minor entanglements that made continuing to play a major part in ESA difficult.
    - vidarh 8y ago
      Euratom is in a very special situation there in that the treaties related to Euratom makes it subject to ECJ jurisdiction, which is one of the "red lines" of the UK government. ESA is not in the same situation and e.g. Norway is a member of ESA and Canada sits on the ESA council under a Cooperation Agreement.
- RugnirViking 8y ago
  Yep, completely impossible to have any diplomatic relations with any nations at all post-brexit. No possible way they'd like to get the tourism and investment that comes from space launches. Lets not be silly, as much as brexit was foolish, the UK will still work in the ESA closely and will still be on very good terms with the vast majority of nations on the planet.
isostatic 9y ago
Acension Island, maybe St Helena, if the goal is to keep the launch pad in "British territory"
- vidarh 8y ago
  St Helena's existing airport is problematic due to wind shear and tailwinds - the existing route flying in there takes fewer passengers than the planes they use can normally take to compensate for the difficult conditions, and the geography of the island makes a larger runway problematic. Ascension would be more likely, given that it has a runway intended as an emergency runway for the Shuttle, and it has a bunch of communications facilities (GCHQ, NASA, ESA, BBC Atlantic relay) as well as US and UK military facilities.

by NLips 9y ago

Not much better. I believe a bunch (all?) of ESA launches go from French Guiana, so my guess is that might be the easiest place to go for orbital launches for a British company.

xchaotic 9y ago

It used to be easier before Brexit. Nowadays the might bad well launch from Kazakhstan

rospaya 9y ago
ESA isn't an EU agency, it's independent.
- twic 8y ago
  You could say the same about Euratom, but we're leaving that, because membership requires accepting the authority of the European Court of Justice in some areas. I wouldn't be surprised if there were minor entanglements that made continuing to play a major part in ESA difficult.
  - vidarh 8y ago
    Euratom is in a very special situation there in that the treaties related to Euratom makes it subject to ECJ jurisdiction, which is one of the "red lines" of the UK government. ESA is not in the same situation and e.g. Norway is a member of ESA and Canada sits on the ESA council under a Cooperation Agreement.
RugnirViking 8y ago
Yep, completely impossible to have any diplomatic relations with any nations at all post-brexit. No possible way they'd like to get the tourism and investment that comes from space launches. Lets not be silly, as much as brexit was foolish, the UK will still work in the ESA closely and will still be on very good terms with the vast majority of nations on the planet.

isostatic 9y ago

Acension Island, maybe St Helena, if the goal is to keep the launch pad in "British territory"

vidarh 8y ago
St Helena's existing airport is problematic due to wind shear and tailwinds - the existing route flying in there takes fewer passengers than the planes they use can normally take to compensate for the difficult conditions, and the geography of the island makes a larger runway problematic. Ascension would be more likely, given that it has a runway intended as an emergency runway for the Shuttle, and it has a bunch of communications facilities (GCHQ, NASA, ESA, BBC Atlantic relay) as well as US and UK military facilities.