Arianespace offers to pick up SpaceX business
The competition heats up: In an effort to gain more business, Arianespace is offering to add an additional launch to its 2017 schedule for any satellite companies whose payload launch is being delayed by both SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launchpad explosion as well as a delay in Russian Proton launches due to its own technical issues.
In his remarks it seemed to me that the CEO of Arianespace was almost gloating.
In a Sept. 7 interview with France Info radio, Israel reiterated his confidence in what he portrayed as Arianespace’s more plodding, deliberative — and higher-cost — approach to launches when compared to SpaceX.
Arianespace does not want a reusable rocket for the moment, he said, because it’s not certain that reusability can reduce costs and maintain reliability. The Ariane 6 rocket, to operate starting in 2020, will not be reusable. The company also is wary of the Silicon Valley ethos that champions constant iteration, which he said has been a feature of Hawthorne, California-based SpaceX as well. “We think that the more a launch resembles the preceding launch, the better we are for our customers because we remain in the ‘explored domain’ where everything is understood,” Israel said.
In the short run he and Arianespace might benefit by this situation, but in the long run they will face a shrinking market share if they cannot lower the price of their rockets.
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The competition heats up: In an effort to gain more business, Arianespace is offering to add an additional launch to its 2017 schedule for any satellite companies whose payload launch is being delayed by both SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launchpad explosion as well as a delay in Russian Proton launches due to its own technical issues.
In his remarks it seemed to me that the CEO of Arianespace was almost gloating.
In a Sept. 7 interview with France Info radio, Israel reiterated his confidence in what he portrayed as Arianespace’s more plodding, deliberative — and higher-cost — approach to launches when compared to SpaceX.
Arianespace does not want a reusable rocket for the moment, he said, because it’s not certain that reusability can reduce costs and maintain reliability. The Ariane 6 rocket, to operate starting in 2020, will not be reusable. The company also is wary of the Silicon Valley ethos that champions constant iteration, which he said has been a feature of Hawthorne, California-based SpaceX as well. “We think that the more a launch resembles the preceding launch, the better we are for our customers because we remain in the ‘explored domain’ where everything is understood,” Israel said.
In the short run he and Arianespace might benefit by this situation, but in the long run they will face a shrinking market share if they cannot lower the price of their rockets.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
I sincerely hope that business schools around the country are taking notes on the current commercial space landscape and designing curricula. We’re watching a nascent Golden Age of Space in real time.
Yeah, I suggest that those who seriously follow this business keep some kind of diary with the thought in mind to write some kind of case study at least, after the fact. All industries have their weird quirks. Space is interesting because of its shift from government to private. Big geomilitary politics mixed with individual billionaires and crazy space cadets. It is often hard to tell who is a fraudster and who is honestly just stupid.
Life has been on Earth for about four billion years. Now, since one hundredth of a millionth of that time, life is for the first time moving further than its home planet. We live in an extremely special time. And we’re not doing it Star Trek style, but we’re stumbling it very randomly and clumsily. Like life does everything. It works beyond our overestimated intelligence. It’s unstoppable, uncontrollable.
” And we’re not doing it Star Trek style, . . ”
No.
This is how you get to ‘Star Trek’ style.
There is a reason why the Silicon Valley has an ethos that champions constant iteration: it gets you ahead faster than those who do not iterate. The Silicon Valley is working very hard to keep up with Moore’s Law, despite the size of each transistor getting closer and closer to the size of an atom.
I believe that this ethos is why commercial-space is going to rapidly surpass government-space. Like the title of one of Douglas Adams’s Zaphod Beeblebrox stories, government plays it safe. No one gets fired from government for playing it safe.
https://wweb.uta.edu/faculty/millsap/WhyStudyPolitics.htm
“A famous philosopher (me) once said there are three kinds of people in the world: 1) those who make something happen; 2) those who wish something would happen; and 3) those who wander in a daze wondering what happened. What kind are you? The British RAF motto: “Those who risk win.” Aim low and you will achieve it and be one of those wandering in a daze. Aim high and you have a chance to make something happen. “If you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got.” Make positive change. Step forward rather than marking time or stepping back.”
Silicon Valley is world-famous precisely because it stopped doing what it always did and braved going beyond “the ‘explored domain’ where everything is understood.” Otherwise it would still call itself “The Valley of the Heart’s Delight” and be filled with orchards. Instead, we now enjoy many things that we take for granted, including GPS, a computer on every desktop, Earth observation and weather prediction, the internet, and international telecommunications. All of these are based upon technologies that were iterated into rapid improvement by Silicon Valley companies.
From the article: “It is very difficult to do innovate with each launch, increase launch cadence and avoid failure all at the same time.”
It is no wonder that SpaceX is the company to beat, in the space launch industry. It is one of the few that is willing to take on the difficult. It may not be certain that reusability can reduce costs and maintain reliability, but if it does, then those who are willing to take that risk will win.
While I understand the rough-and-tumble of real capitalism in cases like this, Arianespace’s “offer” smells a lot like kicking the competition while they’re down.