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ESA manages to launch telescopes much more complex than Hubble in spite of not owning a single rocket.
by cfgvjkljhgfb 15y ago
ESA manages to launch telescopes much more complex than Hubble in spite of not owning a single rocket.
- arethuza 15y agoIn case anyone is wondering, I presume this is a reference to the ESA Herschel telescope launched by Arianespace: http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Herschel/index.html http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Herschel/index.html
- pavlov 15y agoESA does have the Ariane 5 rocket: http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Launchers_Access_to_Space/SEMEUBRHPOG_0.html http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Launchers_Access_to_Space/SEMEUB...
- arethuza 15y agoFrom my reading of the relevant wikipedia page is looks like ESA gets the private company EAD Astrium to develop Ariane launchers and Arianespace, which is also a private company, to actually launch them and market them for commercial launches: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariane_%28rocket_family%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariane_%28rocket_family%29
- cfgvjkljhgfb 15y agoArguements about government ownership of EADS aside - the important part is that ESA is free to launch on Ariane, Soyuz, Chinese or any other rocket without it becoming a congressional matter.