ESA’s new Ariane 6 rocket passed a major full-scale rehearsal

Re:ESA’s new Ariane 6 rocket passed a major full-scale rehea... by janc_ on Thursday November 23, 2023 @06:41PM (#38399055)

there might be circumstances where it is price competitive in the market (certainly when launched from Kourou vs. the US).

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:ESA’s new Ariane 6 rocket passed a major full-scale rehea... by asadotzler on Thursday November 23, 2023 @07:00PM (#38399211)

I don't think so. ArianeSpace's best price for an Ariane 6 launch, with all the subsidies applied, is gonna be around $75 million, maybe more. SpaceX's sticker is $67 million for Falcon 9 and they've been known to come down $10 million or even more to win an important contract (while still preserving fairly healthy profit margins). I don't think there is a single case where a customer would pick Ariane 6 over Falcon 9 except for political reasons.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:ESA’s new Ariane 6 rocket passed a major full-scale rehea... by rq1 on Thursday November 23, 2023 @07:04PM (#38399254)

And your prices don’t even take into account the difference in payloads. (Favorable to Falcon)

The price/kg is 3-4x higher for Ariane.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:ESA’s new Ariane 6 rocket passed a major full-scale rehea... by janc_ on Friday November 24, 2023 @01:56AM (#38401265)

There is also launch windows etc. Not everyone can or wants to wait forever.

And IIRC Ariane 6 can also bring up somewhat heavier payloads because they launch from closer to the equator?

[ Parent | on HN ]