> Ariane 5 is not the predecessor of Vega. I stand corrected. The point is that the ESA's rocket program is far from flawless as your "3 from 3" post above sug

> Ariane 5 is not the predecessor of Vega. I stand corrected. The point is that the ESA's rocket program is far from flawless as your "3 from 3" post above suggests. >> SpaceX has had an amazing run in comparison to most other platforms. > Clearly that's not the case. From the article, this was a TEST flight. Exploding rockets is an expected part of the development process.