ESA looking to SpaceX to launch Euclid space telescope
Capitalism in space: Having lost its Soyuz launch vehicle for its Euclid space telescope because of the Russian invasion of the Ukraine, the European Space Agency (ESA) is now looking at SpaceX as a possible option.
At a meeting of NASA’s Astrophysics Advisory Council, Mark Clampin, director of the agency’s astrophysics division, said his understanding is that the European Space Agency was leaning towards launching its Euclid mission on a Falcon 9 in mid to late 2023.
NASA is a partner on Euclid, a space telescope that will operate around the Earth-sun L-2 Lagrange point 1.5 million kilometers from Earth to study dark energy, dark matter and other aspects of cosmology. The 2,160-kilogram spacecraft was to launch on a Soyuz rocket from French Guiana in 2023.
Europe has for years used its own rockets for its science missions. However, right now the Falcon 9 appears the only option. The last launches of Europe’s Ariane-5 rocket are already assigned, and the new Ariane-6 rocket has not yet flown, is behind schedule, and its early launches are also already reserved.
Nor does ESA have other options outside of SpaceX. Of the rockets powerful enough to do the job, ULA’s Atlas-5 is also being retired, and the Vulcan rocket is as yet unavailable. Blue Origin’s New Glenn is years behind schedule, with no clear idea when it will finally launch.
A final decision is expected soon. ESA could either go with SpaceX, or simply delay several years until Ariane-6 is flying.
If SpaceX gets the job however it will once again demonstrate the value of moving fast in a competitive environment. While its competitors have dithered and thus do not have their rockets ready, SpaceX has been flying steadily for years, so it gets the business.
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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. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to 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.
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Capitalism in space: Having lost its Soyuz launch vehicle for its Euclid space telescope because of the Russian invasion of the Ukraine, the European Space Agency (ESA) is now looking at SpaceX as a possible option.
At a meeting of NASA’s Astrophysics Advisory Council, Mark Clampin, director of the agency’s astrophysics division, said his understanding is that the European Space Agency was leaning towards launching its Euclid mission on a Falcon 9 in mid to late 2023.
NASA is a partner on Euclid, a space telescope that will operate around the Earth-sun L-2 Lagrange point 1.5 million kilometers from Earth to study dark energy, dark matter and other aspects of cosmology. The 2,160-kilogram spacecraft was to launch on a Soyuz rocket from French Guiana in 2023.
Europe has for years used its own rockets for its science missions. However, right now the Falcon 9 appears the only option. The last launches of Europe’s Ariane-5 rocket are already assigned, and the new Ariane-6 rocket has not yet flown, is behind schedule, and its early launches are also already reserved.
Nor does ESA have other options outside of SpaceX. Of the rockets powerful enough to do the job, ULA’s Atlas-5 is also being retired, and the Vulcan rocket is as yet unavailable. Blue Origin’s New Glenn is years behind schedule, with no clear idea when it will finally launch.
A final decision is expected soon. ESA could either go with SpaceX, or simply delay several years until Ariane-6 is flying.
If SpaceX gets the job however it will once again demonstrate the value of moving fast in a competitive environment. While its competitors have dithered and thus do not have their rockets ready, SpaceX has been flying steadily for years, so it gets the business.
The support of my readers through the years has given 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. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
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. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to 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.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five 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:
5. 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. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
It continues to amaze me that Ariane and ULA both chose to retire their existing launchers and move to new vehicles without retaining some kind of fall-back or transition capability, at the same time, and that both of them seem to lack any urgency in getting past that gap even in the face of SpaceX happily taking all their customers.
How will SpaceX respond to continuing market demand for Falcon rockets and Merlin engines? Of course it really is a net new demand for Falcon second stages and launch services, since first stages are reusable.
How long will SpaceX keep prices similar to current levels, while their current competitor platforms fold, and new ones slow walk? Not long I would suggest. I hope Elon gives preference to NASA and DoD, and soaks the rest to maintain his margins.
If they wait a couple of years, they can launch several telescopes at once on a Starship.
Good point, Gary. And as I have said before, why are they designing a Mars sample-return mission when a SpaceX astronaut could just bring them back in his carry-on?
Ray, I guess – politically – Musk has to follow your suggested path, but I would prefer he preference private enterprise and charge max rates to DOD and NASA and build his margins off them.
I guess instead of “soaks the rest”, I really meant “soaks the Euros”, because they have backed themselves into a corner, first by relying on outmoded Russian technology, and then by investing in non-reusable stuff when forced to finally leave the Soyuz.
“It continues to amaze me that Ariane and ULA both chose to retire their existing launchers and move to new vehicles without retaining some kind of fall-back or transition capability”…
You mean like the US government when they shut down the shuttle without a viable means to replace it?
As for waiting on Starship… why? If they are going to wait for that, they might as well wait for Ariane 6. Falcon (or Falcon Heavy, since it will need fuel to get to L2) is flying now. Un-tested so far, lets say they get Starship to orbit in the next few months. That is still just LEO. To get anywhere else requires the currently unavailable re-fueling in orbit technology. Should they wait for that also?
And just because Starship is projected to have greater upmass capability, does not mean that a bunch of telescopes, or anything for that matter, are all going to the same place. It will not be like a pick up truck that can run around from one orbit to another at will.
I want to see it work.. but I am not holding my breath for trips to the moon, or anyone else, anytime soon.
“to study dark energy, dark matter and other aspects of cosmology”
I hope they’re just talking about the “dark” malarkey to excite the Astrophysics Community, because otherwise this mission is a complete waste of SpaceX’s launch opportunities.
David Ross: SpaceX won’t waste anything. They are a launch provider, and make money by providing that service to anyone. And they certainly have the resources to handle as many launches as possible.
If the ESA wishes to spend its money on this project, SpaceX would be foolish to turn it down.
David Ross,
Sometimes the contribution made by observationS or experiments is to disprove the original hypothesis.
If that happens, it is still an advancement of knowledge.
Ray Van Dune asked: “How long will SpaceX keep prices similar to current levels, while their current competitor platforms fold, and new ones slow walk? Not long I would suggest. I hope Elon gives preference to NASA and DoD, and soaks the rest [“soaks the Euros”] to maintain his margins.”
One of Musk’s goals (other than colonize Mars) is to provide low cost access to space. I would suggest that SpaceX will not raise prices any faster than inflation. Although it means that each flight contributes less to future development projects, it also means that SpaceX should get more customers. This is in line with the low cost access to space, as it opens up space to so much more commercial work than we ever had before low cost commercial access.
David Eastman wrote: “It continues to amaze me that Ariane and ULA both chose to retire their existing launchers and move to new vehicles without retaining some kind of fall-back or transition capability, at the same time, and that both of them seem to lack any urgency in getting past that gap even in the face of SpaceX happily taking all their customers.”
ULA’s main problem is the availability of the BE-4 engine. I’m sure they would be farther along if the engine had been available on time.
The only country that might have a chance to beat Space X and musk is China, only because cost means nothing to them. They will give anyone they want a free flight just to kill their competition.
Russia does not have the tech or economy and the EU must watch its pocketbook even more than the US. India might get close but by then Musk will have moved on and advanced even further to providing launches faster and cheaper than he does now.
Musk might get to the Mars but the Moon is the next logical off planet permanent colony.