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Comment by cratermoon | Hacker News Reader

What other launch systems does Europe have? Or had, in history? Oh, Soviet Union/Russia doesn't count as Europe in this context, just ESA countries. The author probably should have been more specific.

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Ariane 4 and preceding versions? There was also the Tsyklon series (mix between Soviet and European tech).

> should have been more specific

Why? When someone says “America” without specifying anything it’s usually perfectly obvious they are talking about the US. Same applies to Europe and the EU(+associates) these days.

I worked on the Ariane 5 during the transition from Ariane 4 to 5. Back then many did not like the Ariane 5 design. The Ariane 5 was originally meant as a carrier for the European Space Shuttle competitor Hermes and repurposing it for commercial payload launches involved many compromises. When the last remaining Ariane 4 had launched I asked one of my senior colleagues why we wouldn't just build a couple more of them. I was told that this was not realistic because for one, parts were built in batches and you could not just produce a few and for another many of the companies that were involved did not even exist anymore.

Regardless if that is true, the last Ariane 4 launched 20 years ago so it is certainly a rocket of a long gone past.

In my opinion Ariane 5 was way overbuilt. This forced it into a niche and lead to it being not at all dominant. It speaks volumes how much ESA was reliant on Soyuz.

Europe should have built an Ariane 4 replacement, using Kerolox as the base fuel.

I always wonder what happened to that launch commander (?) of the initial A5 launch that blew up, anyone know?

The "Directeur des opérations" was Pierre RIBARDIERE, the launch failure had nothing to do with him, it was due to a software bug (overflow) in a component that was reused from Ariane 4, but bugged out in Ariane 5 due to the much greater accélération IIRC.

Oh I know, I just remember his look of utter despondence, and wondered if he'd get the old scapegoat treatment or something.

Vega https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vega_(rocket)

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