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Achievements of SpaceX are enormous. But is US actually far ahead? Both China and EU have pretty much the same capabilities for space exploration.
by ponector 4mo ago
Achievements of SpaceX are enormous. But is US actually far ahead? Both China and EU have pretty much the same capabilities for space exploration.
- philipwhiuk 4mo ago> Both China and EU have pretty much the same capabilities for space exploration. China maybe soon, but the EU is not close. Ariane 6 is in no way comparable to either SLS or Starship or New Glenn. It does 10t to low-earth orbit, 4t to lunar-transfer orbit.
- perilunar 4mo agoFor comparison, the Saturn 5 was 140 tonnes to LEO and 43.5 tonnes to TLI.
- cmiles8 4mo agoChina is behind and making progress, but still hasn’t hit key milestone the US hit decades ago. The EU isn’t even close.
- ponector 4mo agoYou can say the same about US: still hasn't hit key milestone US hit decades ago.
- panick21_ 4mo agoThis is incorrect. If you look at the total size of Space sector, US dominates. Total amount of launches and sats, the US dominates. Total size of spend on civilian research, NASA dominates. Total spent by DoD, US dominates. Amount of starups and new company formation in space, US dominates. SpaceX alone dominates so completely that almost everything else is noise. And if you remove SpaceX, the US still ahead in most categories.