Re:Europe’s Ariane 6 rocket is turning into a space policy d...
by moffkalast on Tuesday April 18, 2023 @01:04PM
(#35616720)
Makes sense, after all they picked the F9 to launch the James Webb. Oh wait...
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Re:Europe’s Ariane 6 rocket is turning into a space policy d...
by allenrb on Tuesday April 18, 2023 @01:11PM
(#35616813)
A decision which was announced in December of 2015 per https://www.arianespace.com/press-release/esa-and-arianespac...
Of course, not much has changed since then…
Re:Europe’s Ariane 6 rocket is turning into a space policy d...
by nordsieck on Tuesday April 18, 2023 @01:12PM
(#35616837)
> Makes sense, after all they picked the F9 to launch the James Webb. Oh wait...
A big part of the reason the JWST flew on Ariane 5 is because it was started in 2003 - long before the first flight of Falcon 9.
Re:Europe’s Ariane 6 rocket is turning into a space policy d...
by panick21_ on Thursday April 20, 2023 @12:03AM
(#35636246)
Launching James Webb was part of the European part of helping with financing James Webb. And of course they picked their own rocket to do so.
Ariane 5 was not picked because its the most reliable. Ariane 5, Delta IV and Atlas 5 all had the necessary certification to launch James Webb.
Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy also have this level of certification, but of course they got it after James Webb was already assigned.
Your comment is just a fundamental misunderstanding of how launch vehicle selection works and how NASA certification levels work. Please stop with these uninformed comments.