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Isar Aerospace reaches orbit and deploys payloads on second flight
- samtherocket 8d agoI want to ask whether Isar’s success will create more experimental propulsion and launch-system jobs in Europe.
- ChrisArchitect 11d agoDiscussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49580369 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49580369
- mnewme 11d agoAwesome
- nolok 11d agoCongratulation and great news ! For Europe, but also the world, space access is one of those frontiers we can (and I believe will) see truly opened in my lifetime and I find that truly awesome. Interestingly there still seems to be a difference in approach between "few launch, expected to go well" in europe and "many launch as trial and error" in the US, with other countries falling somewhere in between those two limits, it's often seen as a threat here of "if we don't do more more often we won't make any progress" but ignoring the economical side (and I think it's fair, given than even with massive subsidies SpaceX is not financially viable until it feed itself through Starlink) it's been a remarkable series of years for new European vehicules launch success. Also one thing I have to point: > Europe now has sovereign access to space. I understand what is meant here, and of course said company need to push that forward, but French Guyana is full french territory, it's not even a foreign territory. It's part of the EU (known as the outermost region of the European Union), EU law applies, it's citizens are EU citizens, EU citizens from other countries can freely move and work and live there ... It's technicaly more EU than Norway. But less Europe than Norway, sure. Still, on the context of "sovereign access", I would argue both side of that coin have their attributes, and for long term sovereignty I would prefer EU territory instead of "inside-europe-Belarus" for exemple.
- FpUser 10d ago>"I would prefer EU territory instead of "inside-europe-Belarus" for exemple." Unless Great Orange or his successor/s would start having ideas
- 3938848484 11d ago[flagged]
- nolok 11d agoEh hard disagree there, the way I see it there is no more squabble between France and Poland than there is between Texas and California or between Spain and Romania compared to New york and Virginia. In fact, I would say we have LESS of it. The only thing we need is to actually stop ignoring the forest for the tree and see that the world moved on beyond our petty local borders and we're lucky enough to have found a system where we're stronger together, to the point where we matter in the world and can't be ignored or pushed aside, while also protecting the core of each of our own cultural societies (langugage, history, ...), and only fools would let that go because they're too close minded to see it.
- 3938848484 11d ago[dead]
- frikskit 11d agoThat was not a useful metaphor, but by all means try again (if you want) and teach us something interesting (and concrete) based on your unique experience.
- embedding-shape 11d agoMust be incredibly humbling experience to not realize EU is a union of independent countries and the US is a federation of states until you work for one of the delegations, wasn't it? Most of us pick up on that even without professional experience about it.
- arifitworld 11d ago[flagged]
- gagan2020 11d agoThere will be some chain reaction up there in near future, in our lifetime only. Congratulation to the team. These milestones are necessary to advancement of human race as we need new planets to occupy. But, we needed clear path going forward. I am both pro to advancement but with caution kind of guy.
- amelius 11d agoLet's first be a competitor to Musk's short term commercial plans.
- gagan2020 11d agoIt's a race but who will bell the cat and be impartial? That should be the question.
- LM358 10d ago>we need new planets to occupy We absolutely do not
- gagan2020 10d agoThat's open question for humanity. I respect both sides of it but I am little more pro to residences in other planets as we are on tech breakthrough on limitation of Earth. Now, surviving means occupying other planets. However, these are just my thoughts you can have different.
- jimnotgym 11d agoCongratulations ISAR Edit: it should be Isar not ISAR This is a huge achievement and every person involved should be very proud. Please oblige me by not writing anything political in reply, let's just celebrate!
- nullderef 11d agoIt’s Isar, not ISAR. It’s the name of the river that crosses Munich (which I love) :)
- jimnotgym 10d agoThank you for your correction. That has been a nice addition to my German geography. It looks like the people of Munich really enjoy their river in a way we can't enjoy ours in the UK, due to pollution.
- etienne89 10d agoThey could make their name an acronym in the future: “International Space Agency for Rockets” ;)
- deleted 10d ago[deleted]
- kevinkatzke 11d agoAmazing achievement!
- tgv 11d agoThis might even influence today's election in Sachsen. With a bit of luck, it could turn a few voters to a more optimistic world view.
- mgrandl 11d agoSachsen-Anhalt != Sachsen . And I think voters there are too far gone…
- baxtr 11d agoAlso, they have roughly 1/2 of Berlin's population in the entire state.
- dgellow 10d agoBut the impact of an AFD win in that Bundesland would be terrible for the whole country. A bit long (45min) but this video from Simplicissimus goes into it in details: https://youtu.be/N2b1y9GAF48?si=1_L80z1PTXENkXy2 https://youtu.be/N2b1y9GAF48?si=1_L80z1PTXENkXy2
- tgv 11d agoSorry, I knew the full name, but overlooked the fact that shortening it turned it into another state's name.
- sajithdilshan 10d agoWhy would it influence the voters in Saxony-Anhalt? The voters are mainly voting AfD because all the other old parties have failed them miserably since the reunification and they don't have any other alternative, because voting for the same parties expecting a different result/future would be insanity.
- ahartmetz 10d agoThe east has never been economically very strong, it used to be huge feudal-style farms and a bit of high-tech industry (planes, optics, trains, electronics in the 1930s). Not too different from now. Then there was the GDR which made things much worse. It's not really West Germany that caused the weak economy of the East Germany. The handling of reunification did suck, but you can't just will a strong industrial base into existence neither.
- hn9zmdcaou 10d agoThe restraint here is admirable
- wyrank 10d ago[dead]
- pyrale 10d agoTheir press release seems to center on: > Europe now has sovereign access to space. [...] Customers around the world now have a sovereign launch option at their disposal. They apparently try very hard to ignore Arianespace.
- moogly 10d agoI think the missing word there might be "private", because there's also Esrange (for smaller satellites as of now).
- ph4rsikal 10d agoArianspace launches from French Guiana while a French commune is not really close to the actual continent of Europe.
- wasfgwp 9d agoFrench Guiana is in the EU though. While Norway is not.
- mrweasel 10d agoThe media has been struggling on how to word this. Danish media tried labeling it as "the first orbital launch from Europe. Which is wrong, because the Plesetsk Cosmodrome exists. It's also not the first orbital launch from the EU, because Norway isn't in the EU. Using "from western Europe" sound like your trying to hard to make it special. "First commercial space company to successfully deliver satellites into orbit, from the European continent" is probably the most correct title while remaining fairly interesting.
- ButlerianJihad 10d agoGeographic Qualifiers https://m.xkcd.com/2901/ https://m.xkcd.com/2901/
- ronvara61 10d agoDoes someone know if they are planning to do a reusable rocket?
- sajithdilshan 10d agoCongrats to Isar Aerospace. If any nation in Europe that can start a new space frontier, that would be the Germans and I hope Isar would get strong support from the Bavarian state to be a neck-on-neck competitor to SpaceX.
- msdz 10d agoAgreed, but do you think either of the two federal/state governments would even have enough support material available, whether in the form of capital or otherwise (i.e. contracts), to give to Isar Aerospace that would enable them to compete with (at current valuation) a giant like SpaceX?
- sajithdilshan 10d agoBavaria is one of the most richest (if not the most) state in Germany. By GDP alone it's the 7th largest economy in Europe (https://www.vbw.com/int/About-us/Facts-about-Bavaria/index.jsp https://www.vbw.com/int/About-us/Facts-about-Bavaria/index.j...). Of course they have money to support Isar and they should do it to diversify their economy and break the heavy dependency on auto manufacturers.
- msdz 10d ago(As a Bavarian,) I’m acutely aware of the state’s economy – but my point is that SpaceX has an even bigger economy behind it, if the two were to actually be compared or compete. Good point re/ depending on auto makers, though. That also applies to all of Germany…
- ben_w 10d agoBigger economy, yes by about 10x. But despite the spectacle, SpaceX's actual expenses have been around 0.3-0.4% of German GDP in recent years. It's priorities rather than absolute costs that matter here. Germany could absolutely do all of SpaceX as almost a rounding error, but probably has better things for that money to get spent on.
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- OrvalWintermute 10d ago[flagged]
- NetMageSCW 10d agoSpaceX is incredibly cheaper than Isar per pound, but if you only need a couple thousand pounds lifted, unless a RideShare or Transporter mission is available and suitable, you won’t by buying a SpaceX launch for $15 million.
- doodlebugging 10d agoYou seem like the kind of person who probably gets a rise from seeing all those mildly penis orbital vehicles lifting off.
- Vishal_Max 10d agoI really like seeing new aerospace companies, and i really hope humans go interstellar by 2050
- NetMageSCW 10d agoLOL
- aeve890 10d agoLmao even. Interstellar in <30 years? come on.
- Vishal_Max 9d ago[dead]
- doodlebugging 10d agoI agree. There's a nice list of humans that I would love to see go interstellar.
- 8note 10d agothis seems a bit ambitious, considering that Voyager just left the solar system a permanent self sufficient colony on antarctica is a bit more like it, but still pretty ambitious
- Vishal_Max 9d agoIt is ambitious, and that’s what makes this so much fun to think about. Even starting a colony on Mars would be so cool.
- consumer451 10d agoIt might interest folks to learn: > Incidentally, the early investment for Isar came from Bülent Altan, the Turkish ex-SpaceX guy who was in charge of the guidance system for Falcon-1, Falcon-9 and Dragon. [0] It turns out that Altan was an angel investor in Isar, and then co-founded VC firm Alpine Space Ventures [1] and continued to invest in Isar, among other space ventures in Europe. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49583528 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49583528 [1] https://alpinespace.vc/ https://alpinespace.vc/
- 3838484884 10d ago[dead]
- consumer451 10d agoThat was not my point. I was thinking more along the lines of SpaceX alumni are creating a lot of really cool stuff. Tesla alumni as well. That might actually be Musk's greatest contribution, frfr. I would love to see some real data on this.
- deleted 10d ago[deleted]
- tomasphan 10d agoThe enterprising Germans all left for the US to make bread
- Geof25 10d agoSeems like they all failed miserably, when all what you can get in USA is a white rubber loaf which never goes moldy.
- ben_w 10d agoI like variety of bread in Germany, but one of the problems is how quickly it goes mouldy. Even the cheap stuff I had as a student in Aberystwyth (coastal) from Lidl (German chain) didn't go off quite so fast so often.
- morkalork 10d agoWhat the fuck is wrong with Americans? There's so many ignorant, racist, and all around shit takes in this thread.
- Danox 10d agoMany Americans are in the middle of the death throes of empire the world is moving on and as an American. That’s fine with me Lake Ontario forever ha.ha.ha…
- computerdork 10d agoAs an American, would say more than half our country actually agrees with you. Trumps approval rating has fallen to 39% while 58% disapprove. Yeah, a lot of us in the US are in just as much amazement as the rest of the world at the crazy and petty actions he takes. So we’re just bidding our time, waiting until the midterm elections to weaken the right, and then afterwards, we’ll just be counting the days until he’s out of office. Hopefully he’ll be replaced with someone who is at least halfway competent - it amazes us how almost everything the touches gets completely screwed up
- goobatrooba 10d agoAnd i as an average European just want to say - we feel with you and all the others that are suffering through this. I don't know either what I could or would do if my own government went this route. I hope your institutions and the people's resilience will overcome this dark chapter of American history and build a better foundation on top.
- computerdork 10d agoThanks, it’s been a real trial, but we can feel the momentum shifting - when Trump is truly let loose, he’s his own worst enemy. And agreed, hope our institutions hold up too:)
- doodlebugging 10d ago
- dzonga 10d agocongrats - this is massive. created in 2018 and already delivering payloads to space in 2026 - less than 10 years.
- psadri 10d agoFor anyone interested in private space flight: Wild Wild Space documentary. Also a commentary about startups in general. Separately, I've been wondering how uneven human progress is. I think we have come a long way in electronics (relays to vacuum tubes to transistor to … to an M5 chip) but in some other domains, like moving objects through space, we are basically mostly reliant on thrust generated by burning fuel (EV's are a genuine advance, but mostly due to battery tech).
- NetMageSCW 10d agoIon thrusters say “hi!”
- amai 10d agoThat is bad. How can they collect important data if the rocket doesn't explode at launch? Space-X does it better.
- doodlebugging 10d agoCongratulations to those who have worked so hard to make this happen. I wish you continued success. It is great that they have realized both mission targets on their second flight attempt. I think the more options there are for access to space, the more likely we are as a species to launch useful payloads that will help us understand how we fit in and how we can better manage our own situation. It is disconcerting to see the night sky fill with constellations of satellites but there is hope that they will be used for productive purposes.
- hn_submit 10d agoGermany having its own sovereign launch capability will eventually sink ESA.
- protocolture 10d agoElon on the phone to Donald this morning demanding more protection.
- samtherocket 8d agoMany congratulations on the second flight. Hope that would open up a lot of opportunities for even fresh aerospace engineers too.