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> But how many more decades until ESA finally has a launch vehicle stack with a fully reusable first stage? It’s like theyre still living in the 70s. Note tha
by sho_hn 3y ago
> But how many more decades until ESA finally has a launch vehicle stack with a fully reusable first stage? It’s like theyre still living in the 70s.
Note that NASA also doesn't have one: It only has SpaceX'.
Europe has a fair number of private rocket startups, e.g. Isar, Orbex, RFA ... some have seen government investments. We'll see if/when ESA becomes one of their customers.
- Octoth0rpe 3y ago> Note that NASA also doesn't have one: It only has SpaceX'. Another way of saying this is that SpaceX is a contractor; which means that both NASA and the ESA 'own' the same # of reusable rockets (zero), and have the ability to purchase the same number of reusable rockets from the industry (one, from spaceX).
- foreverobama 3y ago[dead]