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A comment on As the SpaceX steamroller surges, European rocket industry vows to resist. Parent comment

Re:As the SpaceX steamroller surges, European rocket industr... by simion314 on Friday July 20, 2018 @12:22PM (#17576378)
Isn't the article mentioning that they are working on 2 new rockets and that the plan is to not compete in SpaceX niche?

I assume that we do not know that much about the innovation due to much smaller PR budgets.

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Re:As the SpaceX steamroller surges, European rocket industr... by sbov on Friday July 20, 2018 @12:30PM (#17576462)
AFAIK they don't have any capabilities SpaceX won't have, so SpaceX's "niche" is to just charge less for the same service.
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Re:As the SpaceX steamroller surges, European rocket industr... by JumpCrisscross on Friday July 20, 2018 @12:49PM (#17576666)
> they don't have any capabilities SpaceX won't have

Correct. Falcon 9 is cheaper than Ariane 6 and the Falcon Heavy can launch more mass than Arian 5 or 6 for less. Given the piggyback market, where unused launch mass can be sold to third parties, the only reason to pay up for this platform is for political or scheduling reasons.

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Re:As the SpaceX steamroller surges, European rocket industr... by hayd on Friday July 20, 2018 @12:30PM (#17576453)
What niche? They're all getting things into space.

I assume the innovation is regulatory...

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