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Comment by teiferer | Hacker News Reader

> > Europe now has sovereign access to space.

> I understand what is meant here, and of course said company need to push that forward, but French Guyana is full french territory, it's not even a foreign territory.

Does French Guyana have a usable space rocket? Cause if not then you are completely missing the point of what "space access" means here. It's not about a spot from where to start the rockets. It's about being able to build them. No matter French Guyana or Norway or central Berlin.

And that's obvious to everybody including yourself, so why you opened the French-nationalist angle here with lots of angry messages with all sorts of politics is unclear to everybody watching.

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> Does French Guyana have a usable space rocket?

Yes: the Ariane rockets. "French Guyana" is part of France, which is part of the EU.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Guiana

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariane_(rocket_family)

Ok, then why don't they launch from Norway and why is the article considered news even though the whole European package already exists?

1. Who is "they"? Isar Aerospace and Arianespace are distinct entities.

2. Isar Aerospace is the first fully private European company (a startup) to do this. Arianespace and the Ariane rockets have heavy state/ESA involvement.

3. It is the first launch to orbit from geographically European soil. French Guiana is politically part of France, but geographically obviously part of South America.

4. Why would everyone have to launch from the same place, in your esteemed opinion? Why are some US payloads launched from California, some from Florida, and soon some from Texas and Louisiana?

5. Are all launch locations equally suitable for all orbits? Are all orbits equally suitable for all missions?

6. Norway is a lot closer to the rest of Europe than French Guiana is.

7. Why was SpaceX newsworthy, particularly on a startup-centric site, when NASA already exists?

> 2. Isar Aerospace is the first fully private European company (a startup) to do this. Arianespace and the Ariane rockets have heavy state/ESA involvement.

To go even further: ~60% of Ariane Group revenue is from the french state, for their nuclear launch system. The whole ariane space rocket is their side show, a way to reduce cost for France by getting the market to pay some of the R&D.

> 2. Isar Aerospace is the first fully private European company (a startup) to do this.

Sure. But that's different from "Europe now has sovereign access to space." don't you think? If anything, a state-owned manufacturer is more "sovereign access" than a private company who can decide who they do business with. (Even though state regulates exports but they could decide where to manufacture things.)

> 3. It is the first launch to orbit from geographically European soil. French Guiana is politically part of France, but geographically obviously part of South America.

Sure. Though Norway has been part of Europe for a while and their space port isn't from yesterday either. A milestone? Sure. Never seen before sovereignity? Um...

I don't have answers to your other questions as I'd ask them too.

To me the "Europe now has sovereign access" line by the CEO is a bit of hype, though technically it is true if you view Europe geographically, as he seems to do.

Andøya Spaceport has been a place for suborbital/sounding rockets, this is the first time a rocket has been launched into orbit from there.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andøya_Space

> I don't have answers to your other questions as I'd ask them too.

They were questions to you, as it is you making various weird claims.

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