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Private German rocket makes history, reaches orbit from European soil

342 pointsby bookmtnyesterday at 8:31 PM175 commentsview on HN

Comments

hypferyesterday at 9:10 PM

This is a huge success, but it I think also tells us that the EU is further decoupling itself from the US. Slowly but steadily.

Which is obviously the right thing to do, but it's interesting that it's not just a hypothetical anymore.

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godwinson__4-8yesterday at 10:55 PM

A good historical nugget is that the Americans got a huge leg up in the space race by importing the Germans who worked on the V-2 program.

Germans killed Soviets by the millions. If you were a German of value (like a rocket scientist) you were eager to surrender to the Americans before the Soviets could get their hands on you.

If you were the Americans, you distrusted the Soviets already, so it was a win-win.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Paperclip

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whatever1yesterday at 11:49 PM

Yeah in general it’s good advice to not existentially challenge the Germans.

blini-kotyesterday at 8:37 PM

Plesetsk is also european soil.

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MadrasTh0rntoday at 12:08 AM

One can hope they can repurpose this to a shield for Ukraine

artisinalyesterday at 10:32 PM

I wonder whether the Sámi people have been consulted or compensated for the use of their traditional lands as a rocket launch site. Given Norway’s long history of suppressing Sámi people and their land rights, I'd be interested to know how that was handled.

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capocasayesterday at 9:23 PM

This is such a breath of fresh air

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ChrisArchitectyesterday at 9:00 PM

Isar Aerospace launch into orbit [video] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ss1DUqLjecc (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49580325)

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StanislavPetrovyesterday at 10:56 PM

The Germans also launched the first rocket to make it to space on June 20th 1944, though it wasn't privately made.

formvoltrontoday at 12:26 AM

i was under the impression that the closer you launch from the equator, the less sustained force you need. wrong?

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millerampyesterday at 9:07 PM

Made with imipolex g?

MisterMunchkinyesterday at 8:51 PM

How can it be the first European rocket? There’s the ESA! Are you telling me we have all these organisations and none of them have ever launched from their own continent?

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verzaliyesterday at 9:09 PM

Fantastic job!

shevy-javayesterday at 9:12 PM

The sooner Europe cuts itself off from the US crazy billionaires, the better - on all levels (software and manufacture processes are the two biggest issues). Today we already could see the US surrender team crawling up to dictator Putin. Enough is enough - agent Krasnov needs to be isolated.

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arthurpatchyesterday at 9:08 PM

[flagged]

hinkleyyesterday at 9:03 PM

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GoGermanyyesterday at 9:54 PM

o/

hn_submityesterday at 10:00 PM

The Germans will now distance themselves from ArianeSpace and go their own way. Let the infighting begin!!