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My understanding is that one of the key advantages that Ariane has over it's rivals is it's launch site near the equator (http://www.arianespace.com/spaceport-i
by j_col 14y ago
My understanding is that one of the key advantages that Ariane has over it's rivals is it's launch site near the equator (http://www.arianespace.com/spaceport-intro/overview.asp http://www.arianespace.com/spaceport-intro/overview.asp). Is this saving negated by other factors, when compared to SpaceX?
- InclinedPlane 14y agoThat's only an incremental advantage. Note that SpaceX also has an equatorial launch site but they haven't used it since the Falcon 1 because it's just not as practical as operating out of Florida/California. Comparatively, SpaceX is operating a much simpler rocket that is manufactured much less expensively than the Ariane 5, by about a factor of 10 or so.
- stcredzero 14y agoThe cost of fuel is under 3% of total launch costs.
- schiffern 14y agoAs far as centrifugal advantage, SpaceX gets 88% as much launching from KSC in Florida. There's also an advantage for geostationary satellites (you avoid an inclination burn) but I'm not sure how large that would be.