Private German rocket makes history, reaches orbit from European soil
179 points by bookmtn 2 hours ago | 70 comments
ChrisArchitect 2 hours ago
Isar Aerospace launch into orbit [video] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ss1DUqLjecc (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49580325)
replyconsumer451 4 minutes ago
Thanks for that video. Super cool that they got pro streamers NSF involved.
replyMisterMunchkin 2 hours ago
How can it be the first European rocket? There’s the ESA! Are you telling me we have all these organisations and none of them have ever launched from their own continent?
replyloeg 2 hours ago
Europe isn't on or remotely near the equator, which is somewhat favorable for launches.
replysmitty1e 55 minutes ago
> The German company Isar Aerospace launched its Spectrum rocket from Andøya Space Center in northern Norway today
replyTo speculate, they could be targeting a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molniya_orbit
Achterlangs 2 hours ago
ESA launches French Guiana. Since it is cheaper to launch closer to the equator with the extra speed provided by the earth's rotation.
replysisve 2 hours ago
For satellites that should be in Sun-synchronous orbit Andøy is a great place to launch from
replyartisinal 2 hours ago
Really comes in handy to still have a couple of colonies near the equator.
replyIt's also better to have the massive amounts of emissions far away from your own population.
tristanj 2 hours ago
French Guiana is not a colony, it is a region of France. People who live there have the same constitutional rights as anyone living in mainland France.
replyIt has the same status in France as Alaska does in the US.
hypfer 2 hours ago
> How can it be the first European rocket?
replyNot at all. You've missed the "Private" in the headline. And that it apparently is.
xixixao 2 hours ago
Article says Western Europe, but Norway is in Northern Europe.
reply“First rocket to launch from Europe outside Russia” would have been perfectly correct.
dmaa 2 hours ago
They launch from Guiana afaik
replyechoangle 2 hours ago
French Guiana to be exact, which is a different country
replytristanj 49 minutes ago
Edit: Misread
replyglobular-toast 45 minutes ago
They meant French Guiana is a different country to Guyana... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guianas
replymytailorisrich 2 hours ago
The French used to launch their rockets from Algeria. Their first satellite was launched from there. Since then they moved to (French) Guiana.
replyThe UK launched from Australia.
shevy-java 2 hours ago
The sooner Europe cuts itself off from the US crazy billionaires, the better - on all levels (software and manufacture processes are the two biggest issues). Today we already could see the US surrender team crawling up to dictator Putin. Enough is enough - agent Krasnov needs to be isolated.
replymanlymuppet 35 minutes ago
I don’t think America is so far gone. We have issues sure, but I for one still believe that we can be better.
replyTrump be damned, Europe and America are stronger when they work together.
samrus 31 minutes ago
Americans have to hope that the US will move past trumo and not repeat that mistake, but for europeans its most prudent to prepare for a world where such a corrupt wannabe distator doesnt have have that much leverage over them.
replyThe US and europe would be stronger together if the US acted in good faith. Absent that, decoupling is the right choice
Which is obviously the right thing to do, but it's interesting that it's not just a hypothetical anymore.
The second camp saw the craziness when the later Bush was elected a second time.
Although Ariane's rockets are wildly expensive and uncompetitive compared to SpaceX.
Please give an example of gov assistance that was not a open contract to every private launch company in the US
An ecosystem where we develop things independently is one where everyone loses.
Especially given that recent history has shown us that we're back to "power" being the only language spoken.
__
Rel: The ecosystem thing.
I would challenge that, because if there's one thing where the US has had absurd leverage over the EU (and world, for that matter), then it's tech ecosystems.
A healthy ecosystem would not be owned by SV/US alone.
So right now, we're not really "strong together" but rather weakly dependent. That should be remediated, and decoupling like this is exactly the tool for that.
That's pretty damn obvious to everyone with a half of brain, yet here we are being pulled apart.
A rocket launched into orbit from Norway. That's insane progress and worth celebrating.
Does anyone know if folks in Germany are posting about the huge ego and phallus shaped memes for this company doing something that SpaceX and Blue Origin were also doing? I'm guessing not, because the lens is "decoupling" and not "America bad" like so many felt inclined to report when our private companies were successfully launching rockets.
Anyway, congrats to the team at Isar. I like to celebrate these successes around the world as further space exploration, colonization, science, and economic development benefit us as a species and there is a lot of room for a lot of competitors.
I'm not even sure what to make out of that dismissal opener other than that you've apparently didn't like whatever I wrote.
And that's coming from me, who is already tiptoeing the letter of the law in pursuit of the spirit of the law.
I don't see you contributing to the space here. Just to yourself and your self-image, maybe. Like.. not even trying.
> I don't see you contributing to the space here. Just to yourself and your self-image, maybe. Like.. not even trying.
In that same spirit your comment wouldn’t have been contributing either. You don’t like to see comments I guess about people talking about how far behind the EU is as it continues to be eaten alive by American and Chinese industrial policy, and I don’t like comments about “decoupling”.
Was it the land that Russia currently controls and Ukraine is very unlikely to retake? There's a spectrum between ideological behavior and pragmatic behavior. If Ukraine gives up this land and achieves peace, maybe it's worth it. I'm not suggesting it definitely is but at least the US is trying to negotiate or find some sort of solution, even if it's not going well.
In retrospect the US should have prepared for war and been willing to fight to uphold what was agreed to with Russia but that would have been a hard sell.
> So, no more support to that crazy country.
Nah Europe will still support it. Nothing will change there. But if you want things to change, we can completely withdraw from NATO, move bases back from Europe where we see fit, and un-sanction Russia while no longer providing support to Ukraine in any fashion and no longer sell weapons to Europe. That would be a disaster for Europe, which is why I tend to think comments like this are either ignorant, or pro-Russia/Iran/China with the intent to further inflame whatever tensions exist.
It wasn't the US's decision to make, certainly not without having talked to Ukraine.
And right now, well, this war will continue until one of them runs out of money. The EU currently appears to consider Ukrainian sovereignty in this war to be in their own national interests, so they will keep funding it. Who will support the Russian economy in the same way?
> Nah Europe will still support it. Nothing will change there. But if you want things to change, we can completely withdraw from NATO, move bases back from Europe where we see fit, and un-sanction Russia while no longer providing support to Ukraine in any fashion and no longer sell weapons to Europe. That would be a disaster for Europe, which is why I tend to think comments like this are either ignorant, or pro-Russia/Iran/China with the intent to further inflame whatever tensions exist.
You, and many like you, really need to stop thinking Trump's behaviour is something that can be easily undone. You write to suggest dissenting voices are pro-China: Trump's actions have already forced many in the EU to consider the USA to be a bigger threat than China.
This isn't us liking China, we think poorly of their human rights record etc., it's just that the USA has fallen that far in our eyes.
Just to make it specific: Which city do you live in? I want you to imagine it getting actually, literally, nuked by French or British missiles in response to the USA doing what Trump keeps saying he'll do to Canada or Greenland.
Actual nukes.
I hope that will stay imagination.
Trump has a lot of levers he could pull that would be de facto acts of war besides annexing allies like he says he wants to. Ordering all the tech companies to stop providing services overnight, even that might do it given current dependencies.
Didn’t suggest it was, but at the end of the day it’s the US who is the partner at the table who can make the biggest difference and bringing Ukraine in to the room with Russia will just result in conflict and no hope of figuring things out diplomatically. Of course any deal that the US attempted to broker would have to be agreed to by Ukraine as well. Everyone understands this.
> , and many like you, really need to stop thinking Trump's behaviour is something that can be easily undone. His actions have already forced many in the EU to consider the USA to be a bigger threat than China.
Ok then we should do what I mentioned. It’s over. Is the EU ready to abandon Taiwan? Because if not, and let’s not ignore the G20 statement nor Germany hemorrhaging jobs and pretend the EU is cozying up to China. The US can just do the same and partner with China if it decided to.
> I hope that will stay imagination.
It won’t because it’s hyperbole that can be casually discarded.
> Trump has a lot of levers he could pull that would be de facto acts of war besides annexing allies like he says he wants to. Ordering all the tech companies to stop providing services overnight, even that might do it given current dependencies.
Nah he can’t do that. Tone down the imagination and sensationalizing
How? The US no longer supplies military aid to Ukraine. They're not a partner at all, let alone the one "who can make the biggest difference".
> Ok then we should do what I mentioned. It’s over. Is the EU ready to abandon Taiwan? Because if not, and let’s not ignore the G20 statement nor Germany hemorrhaging jobs and pretend the EU is cozying up to China. The US can just do the same and partner with China if it decided to.
That's not even a coherent argument.
> It won’t because it’s hyperbole that can be casually discarded.
If you don't take it seriously enough to prevent it, your city gets nuked.
> Nah he can’t do that.
Legally, or de-facto? Because legally he shouldn't be currently exchanging missiles with Iran. Legally the White House should be intact. Legally the Epstein files should've been release. Legally he's got 34 felony convictions for things he wasn't allowed to do. Legally he couldn't do the big tariffs he announced. Legally they had no right to go after Anthropic when the company refused to let their software get used for military stuff. Legally, his "I declassified them with my mind" claim was nonsense and he should've had a ten year sentence for that alone.
Not only do we not trust him, we don't trust you, and I mean personally you but also collectively you, to hold him back.
You, personally, are an avatar of the problem us Europeans see with America, because you don't seem to understand how seriously we take this.
Please, for the love of wherever you call home, take this seriously. You write as if this will all blow over and things will return to normal, but this can only happen if you recognise fault.