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> Falcon 9 is the most reliable rocket in the world, with the lowest insurance costs ... Such a reliable source of inconvenient truths, those wretched actuaria
by everybodyknows 4y ago
> Falcon 9 is the most reliable rocket in the world, with the lowest insurance costs ...
Such a reliable source of inconvenient truths, those wretched actuarial accountants.
- moffkalast 4y agoMakes sense, after all they picked the F9 to launch the James Webb. Oh wait...
- nordsieck 4y ago> Makes sense, after all they picked the F9 to launch the James Webb. Oh wait... A big part of the reason the JWST flew on Ariane 5 is because it was started in 2003 - long before the first flight of Falcon 9.
- allenrb 4y agoA decision which was announced in December of 2015 per https://www.arianespace.com/press-release/esa-and-arianespace-ink-james-webb-space-telescope-jwst-launch-contract/ https://www.arianespace.com/press-release/esa-and-arianespac... Of course, not much has changed since then…
- panick21_ 4y agoLaunching James Webb was part of the European part of helping with financing James Webb. And of course they picked their own rocket to do so. Ariane 5 was not picked because its the most reliable. Ariane 5, Delta IV and Atlas 5 all had the necessary certification to launch James Webb. Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy also have this level of certification, but of course they got it after James Webb was already assigned. Your comment is just a fundamental misunderstanding of how launch vehicle selection works and how NASA certification levels work. Please stop with these uninformed comments.