Will it be able to compete at all costs wise, given its lack of reusability?
BBC mentioned it would probably be a decade before the ESA reaches that sort of technology.
Sorry for dumb question I haven’t been following space stuff at all. But I read a couple articles on yesterdays launch and was interested.
I think the only niche will be stubborn European governments.
I mean in any case it’s good to have a backup to not have to rely on someone as uhh… unfavourable and unpredictable as Musk, but that’s disappointing to hear.
Yeah, unfortunately, SpaceX is streets ahead of anyone else in the launch industry in terms of reusability and, in turn, price. In a purely capitalistic system, they’d be putting everyone else out of business, but the US government wants a second source vendor, so ULA stays around, and foreign governments want independent access to space, for a combination of national security and pride, so the Russian, Chinese, Indian, and European space agencies keep on trucking.
I suspect in 10 years or so that’ll change. There are lots of new space companies, it just takes a long time to build a new rocket.