But do they have the capabilities to put satellites into orbit cost-effectively without supporting 'evil Elon'?
As someone else mentioned, Vega C was operational during this period, but also, define 'quite a while'. Last Ariane 5 launch was in mid 2023, First Ariane 6 launch was in mid 2024.
Eutelsat is a commercial company, of course, and doesn't have to use Arianespace/ESA stuff; they have in the past used Ariane 4 and 5, Proton, Falcon 9, and various Atlases and Deltas, and are a fairly obvious candidate customer for Blue Origin.
becomes less relevant when national security is on the line.
@lm28469 I'll edit and answer for you here instead of an additional reply: Falling from the ECB's printers is not free money from "the sky", it's money created by additional inflation, which is a tax on all of us, especially on the poor, which in turn leads to a lower standard of living, desperation and votes towards political extremism. How can people be this economically illiterate is beyond me. You can't complain people are voting right when you're making them poorer through your economic policies. For every action there is a reaction.
Time will tell if moving Rocket Lab to the US was such a wise move. I hope they slowly start shifting their launches to Europe.
Apart from that, we do see the world change in front of our eyes so when your ex-allies are becoming unstable it's natural you are evaluating your options, it's not specifically about Musk in this case.
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jul/15/elon-musk...
> Not a monster? Laisa was a polite Komarran; you had to give her credit for that. "Real monsters," observed Miles, answering her thought instead of her words, "often are just ordinary men. Only more confused in their thinking. [...]"
-- Memory by Lois McMaster Bujold
> "He was just a little villain. An old-fashioned craftsman, making crimes one-off. The really unforgivable acts are committed by calm men in beautiful green silk rooms, who deal death wholesale, by the shipload, without lust, or anger, or desire, or any redeeming emotion to excuse them but cold fear of some pretended future. But the crimes they hope to prevent in that future are imaginary. The ones they commit in the present--they are real."
-- Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold
Of all the remarks made by Elron apologists, this one takes the cake!