[HN Gopher] German company set for first commercial rocket launc...
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       German company set for first commercial rocket launch from Europe
        
       Author : mpweiher
       Score  : 68 points
       Date   : 2025-03-21 19:06 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.msn.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.msn.com)
        
       | Prunkton wrote:
       | AFAIK there will be no official live stream but updates during
       | the launch on their website:
       | https://www.isaraerospace.com/newsroom-first-test-flight
        
       | MaxPock wrote:
       | From EU or are Russian launches not from Europe ?
        
         | zamadatix wrote:
         | Do they have a commercial (non-state entity) which has actually
         | performed a space launch?
        
           | pjc50 wrote:
           | Ariane is launched by a subsidiary of Airbus.
        
         | IncreasePosts wrote:
         | Russia launches from Baikonur in Kazakhstan, which is in Asia
         | (per the traditional Europe-Asia boundary of the Ural river).
         | 
         | Also, most EU launches are from French Guiana, which is a part
         | of France and therefore a part of the EU, so there have been
         | commercial space launches from the EU(the polity), just not
         | from Europe(the landmass).
        
           | zamadatix wrote:
           | Russia has the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Europe and has launched
           | from there before (and is still active), just not via
           | commercial launch provider AFAIK.
        
           | a3w wrote:
           | Russia also used to launch french guiana.
           | 
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_at_the_Guiana_Space_Cent.
           | ..
           | 
           | Was nice having world peace from a NATO's point of view in
           | 2011-2013.
           | 
           | Russian launches continued till third wave of Ukraine
           | territory conflicts in 2022, says wikipedia.
        
           | hangonhn wrote:
           | What did Russia/USSR pick Kazakhstan at the launching point?
           | Was it the closest they can get to the equator?
        
             | fuoqi wrote:
             | The place was originally selected because of the
             | combination of several factors:
             | 
             | - Closeness to the equator.
             | 
             | - Ease of access by rail.
             | 
             | - Lack of populated/foreign areas at the path of falling
             | booster stages.
             | 
             | - Relative closeness to production centers.
             | 
             | - Far enough from borders and small population around the
             | site to make spying harder (remember that in the early days
             | it was also an ICBM launch site).
             | 
             | Other central Asian Soviet republics were farther south,
             | but much worse on the other factors.
             | 
             | Russia simply continues to use it because of the existing
             | infrastructure and tries to gradually move its civilian
             | space program to the new Vostochny Cosmodrome.
        
       | ornitorrincos wrote:
       | PLD space already launched in 2023:
       | https://www.reuters.com/technology/space/spains-pld-space-la...
       | 
       | although their next launches will be from french guiana
        
         | zamadatix wrote:
         | Yeah, it looks like the article shortened out "to space" from
         | the context (that previous launch intended to but fell short).
        
       | ilove_banh_mi wrote:
       | >600 rockets have been launched from the Esrange Space Center
       | near Kiruna, Sweden since 1966.
       | 
       | https://sscspace.com/esrange/
        
         | noselasd wrote:
         | Isn't that owned by the Swedish government ?
        
           | ilove_banh_mi wrote:
           | the space center no, and in general not the rockets
        
         | solarexplorer wrote:
         | There is also the first object in space. But this was arguably
         | no commercial launch.
         | 
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MW_18014
        
       | nosianu wrote:
       | Note:
       | 
       | It is expected that this rocket will explode and reaching orbit
       | is not planned. The company said getting at least 30 seconds of
       | flight time would be nice. Their only goal is to collect as much
       | data as they can in this first flight.
       | 
       | (German) https://www.heise.de/news/Vor-Isar-Aerospace-Testflug-
       | Die-Ra...
        
       | christkv wrote:
       | Whats the cost per kg into space? How does that compare to
       | something like Space X?
        
         | simion314 wrote:
         | >Whats the cost per kg into space? How does that compare to
         | something like Space X?
         | 
         | It is a test , so there are no prices we could use to compare.
         | Also Europe will need to continue to invest in local rocket
         | companies since it is important for defence and also not depend
         | on the whims of a self declared enemy and should I dare say it
         | here ... yeah, a fascist that controls the USA president
        
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       (page generated 2025-03-21 23:01 UTC)