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> The system isn't cutting edge and at best will be in the private market with massive subsidies. It's intended for governmental use (which includes the milita

by lxgr 2y ago

> The system isn't cutting edge and at best will be in the private market with massive subsidies. It's intended for governmental use (which includes the military). As such, there's no need for it to be competitive with any private marketing offering. > So we are paying 10x is more, for getting about 10% the value. Such is the price of strategic independence. Or would you really feel better if the EU were completely dependent on staying on good terms not only with the US (whose soon-to-be leader is publicly considering to let some of its adversaries "do whatever the hell they want" with Europe), but also US-based companies essentially being able to charge the EU whatever they want for space launches due to a lack of alternatives?

panick21_ 2y ago
Its explicitly designed to also see private use, and sold to governments as such. They want to claim that this can subsidize the government operation. This is the exact same playbook that they use with the Ariane 6. Don't worry, its operation will be subsidized by commercial contracts. And then the actual commercial contract is a billion+ $ for Amazon. > Such is the price of strategic independence. If you only get 1% of value for every project, then its simply 100% impossible to actually have broad strategic independence. This is just basic math. There are 1000s of things that you could talk about in regards to strategic independence, if you have to spend 10-100x for each one, then you will simply fail to achieve it in 95-99% of them. And if you are in a position where you can't even get close to the goal of overall strategic independence you need to prioritize. Is a LEO constellation really the most important of those things? If your goal is not consumers streaming Netflix, but resistant military communication, what would a constellation look like that was focused only on that. Strategic thinking is about priorities and using resources in the most efficient way possible to the greatest possible effect. This is specially true in Europe where the money for such things are incredibly limited.

by lxgr 2y ago

panick21_ 2y ago

Its explicitly designed to also see private use, and sold to governments as such. They want to claim that this can subsidize the government operation. This is the exact same playbook that they use with the Ariane 6. Don't worry, its operation will be subsidized by commercial contracts. And then the actual commercial contract is a billion+ $ for Amazon. > Such is the price of strategic independence. If you only get 1% of value for every project, then its simply 100% impossible to actually have broad strategic independence. This is just basic math. There are 1000s of things that you could talk about in regards to strategic independence, if you have to spend 10-100x for each one, then you will simply fail to achieve it in 95-99% of them. And if you are in a position where you can't even get close to the goal of overall strategic independence you need to prioritize. Is a LEO constellation really the most important of those things? If your goal is not consumers streaming Netflix, but resistant military communication, what would a constellation look like that was focused only on that. Strategic thinking is about priorities and using resources in the most efficient way possible to the greatest possible effect. This is specially true in Europe where the money for such things are incredibly limited.