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"Ariane 6 and SLS are make-work projects between major ICBM upgrades"
Great comment over at nasawatch:
"Ariane 6 and SLS are make-work projects for the solid rocket manufacturers to keep the technology alive during the decades between major ICBM upgrades."
http://nasawatch.com/archives/2014/01/the-lesson-we-l.html
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kentercat
• 5 days ago
I think an earlier analysis showed that Ariane development and the expense thereof, no matter what they do, will have a very hard time in ten years catching up to what Space-X will deliver this year.
Ariane 6 and SLS are make-work projects for the solid rocket manufacturers to keep the technology alive during the decades between major ICBM upgrades. Fine. Just admit it and stop with the multi-billion dollar distractions. Have them make X number of ICBM like SRBs per year and give them away steeply discounted to anyone launching from that country. They should be scaled to augment existing launchers - basically to make a Delta/Atlas/Falcon/Ariane mid-sized launcher into a three-quarter sized launcher and plug gaps in launch families. That would save both the US and EU billions. It would not be Robert Zubrin's Trans-orbital Railroad concept, but it would be a step in that direction that I suspect we could agree to fulfill.
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<snip>
kentercat
• 5 days ago
I think an earlier analysis showed that Ariane development and the expense thereof, no matter what they do, will have a very hard time in ten years catching up to what Space-X will deliver this year.
Ariane 6 and SLS are make-work projects for the solid rocket manufacturers to keep the technology alive during the decades between major ICBM upgrades. Fine. Just admit it and stop with the multi-billion dollar distractions. Have them make X number of ICBM like SRBs per year and give them away steeply discounted to anyone launching from that country. They should be scaled to augment existing launchers - basically to make a Delta/Atlas/Falcon/Ariane mid-sized launcher into a three-quarter sized launcher and plug gaps in launch families. That would save both the US and EU billions. It would not be Robert Zubrin's Trans-orbital Railroad concept, but it would be a step in that direction that I suspect we could agree to fulfill.
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