Hacker News Reader

Yup that was amazing. Slightly related, I'm already nervous for the James Webb Telescope launch. Maybe Spacex should launch it :)

View on HN

The main argument for Falcon Heavy over Ariane 5 is cost, not reliability. Ariane 5 remains the most reliable heavy launcher, so that's the launcher you want for JWST.

On average, that's true. however, the most recent Ariane 5 launch did not go as expected. I can only imagine all of the people involved with JWST just got a little more anxious than they wanted to be this close to launch.

if it isn't too expensive to build 3 of your payload, falcon heavy could blow up twice and still be cheaper!

Obviously JWST does not fall into that category. I imagine if it blows up, it is just done forever?

Depends on how much a Falcon Heavy launch will really cost at the end, but right now the nominal fee seems to be around 70M€ for Falcon Heavy and around 150M€ for Ariane 5.

1 successful launch vs 1 launch anomaly in 16 years and 80 consecutive succesful launches.

I know where I'm putting my money.

Ariane 5 had an anomaly just two weeks ago where they put the satellites in the wrong orbit.

http://spaceflight101.com/ariane-5-va241/ariane-5-va241-anom...

Yep, which is the only one it's had since the first flight.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com