Echostar signs a multi-satellite deal using the Ariane 5 rocket.
The competition heats up: Echostar signs a multi-satellite deal using the Ariane 5 rocket.
Several points:
- This is good news for Arianespace, as it gives them a long-term and very reliable customer at just the moment many people, including myself, thought they’d have difficulty selling Ariane 5 to anyone in the coming years. With this deal in hand, they might be able to keep the rocket afloat long enough to find a way to lower its costs and make it more competitive.
- This is bad news for ILS and the Russian Proton rocket. They have lost a loyal customer. And the reason is probably related to their two recent launch failures as well as other quality control failures. Echostar likely looked at these problems and compared them with Ariane 5’s near perfect launch record, with 52 successful launches in a row.
- Overally, however, this is great news for the increasingly competitive launch market. Not only does it keep Arianespace alive, it puts increased pressure on the Russians to find a way to lower their costs, improve their reliability, and thus compete with both the Ariane 5 and SpaceX’s Falcon 9. See for example this story about how the Russians plan on reorganizing their industry.
Now available in hardback and paperback as well as ebook!
From the press release: In this ground-breaking new history of early America, historian Robert Zimmerman not only exposes the lie behind The New York Times 1619 Project that falsely claims slavery is central to the history of the United States, he also provides profound lessons about the nature of human societies, lessons important for Americans today as well as for all future settlers on Mars and elsewhere in space.
Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space, is a riveting page-turning story that documents how slavery slowly became pervasive in the southern British colonies of North America, colonies founded by a people and culture that not only did not allow slavery but in every way were hostile to the practice.
Conscious Choice does more however. In telling the tragic history of the Virginia colony and the rise of slavery there, Zimmerman lays out the proper path for creating healthy societies in places like the Moon and Mars.
“Zimmerman’s ground-breaking history provides every future generation the basic framework for establishing new societies on other worlds. We would be wise to heed what he says.” —Robert Zubrin, founder of founder of the Mars Society.
All editions are available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all book vendors, with the ebook priced at $5.99 before discount. The ebook can also be purchased direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit, in which case you don't support the big tech companies and I get a bigger cut much sooner.
Autographed printed copies are also available at discount directly from me (hardback $24.95; paperback $14.95; Shipping cost for either: $5.00). Just email me at zimmerman @ nasw dot org.
The competition heats up: Echostar signs a multi-satellite deal using the Ariane 5 rocket.
Several points:
- This is good news for Arianespace, as it gives them a long-term and very reliable customer at just the moment many people, including myself, thought they’d have difficulty selling Ariane 5 to anyone in the coming years. With this deal in hand, they might be able to keep the rocket afloat long enough to find a way to lower its costs and make it more competitive.
- This is bad news for ILS and the Russian Proton rocket. They have lost a loyal customer. And the reason is probably related to their two recent launch failures as well as other quality control failures. Echostar likely looked at these problems and compared them with Ariane 5’s near perfect launch record, with 52 successful launches in a row.
- Overally, however, this is great news for the increasingly competitive launch market. Not only does it keep Arianespace alive, it puts increased pressure on the Russians to find a way to lower their costs, improve their reliability, and thus compete with both the Ariane 5 and SpaceX’s Falcon 9. See for example this story about how the Russians plan on reorganizing their industry.
Now available in hardback and paperback as well as ebook!
From the press release: In this ground-breaking new history of early America, historian Robert Zimmerman not only exposes the lie behind The New York Times 1619 Project that falsely claims slavery is central to the history of the United States, he also provides profound lessons about the nature of human societies, lessons important for Americans today as well as for all future settlers on Mars and elsewhere in space.
Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space, is a riveting page-turning story that documents how slavery slowly became pervasive in the southern British colonies of North America, colonies founded by a people and culture that not only did not allow slavery but in every way were hostile to the practice.
Conscious Choice does more however. In telling the tragic history of the Virginia colony and the rise of slavery there, Zimmerman lays out the proper path for creating healthy societies in places like the Moon and Mars.
“Zimmerman’s ground-breaking history provides every future generation the basic framework for establishing new societies on other worlds. We would be wise to heed what he says.” —Robert Zubrin, founder of founder of the Mars Society.
All editions are available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all book vendors, with the ebook priced at $5.99 before discount. The ebook can also be purchased direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit, in which case you don't support the big tech companies and I get a bigger cut much sooner.
Autographed printed copies are also available at discount directly from me (hardback $24.95; paperback $14.95; Shipping cost for either: $5.00). Just email me at zimmerman @ nasw dot org.
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