It is indeed a huge success but it also underlines how far ahead the rest of the world is.

I'd honestly rather like to use this opportunity to talk about that this is a success than returning to our regularly scheduled doomer loop.

A rocket launched into orbit from Norway. That's insane progress and worth celebrating.

> That's insane progress and worth celebrating.

A non-reusable launcher that can put small payloads into a Polar orbits only, due to launch site latitude and lack of an orbital bus. It's fairly 1960s stuff.

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You know.. the things I get flagged for, and then you post stuff like this.

I'm not even sure what to make out of that dismissal opener other than that you've apparently didn't like whatever I wrote.

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I'm honestly not sure if this is the right platform then.

And that's coming from me, who is already tiptoeing the letter of the law in pursuit of the spirit of the law.

I don't see you contributing to the space here. Just to yourself and your self-image, maybe. Like.. not even trying.

Well, if you don’t think it’s the right platform for you there’s no need to post or engage with it. I don’t use traditional social media platforms for example.

> I don't see you contributing to the space here. Just to yourself and your self-image, maybe. Like.. not even trying.

In that same spirit your comment wouldn’t have been contributing either. You don’t like to see comments I guess about people talking about how far behind the EU is as it continues to be eaten alive by American and Chinese industrial policy, and I don’t like comments about “decoupling”.

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I'm not sure, but I think there might be rules against reposting the same comment if the initial one got flagged.

Though, regardless of if that is formalized, the spirit is pretty clear. Anyway.

So what should they do nothing? They have to get started somehow if Japan and China can do it so can Europe, and I think long-term once again, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand won’t be far behind…

I think New Zealand is ahead. RocketLab was the second company in the world after SpaceX to get a privately developed launch vehicle to orbit, back in 2017. They've now had 86 successful launches from their NZ launch site.

That's essentially what they have done for military/defense.

The United States saves the day. France pretends they are in charge with grand speeches.

I was close to a European immigrant and 2 things she was shocked about:

How rich the United States was. Even our poor had more than her upper middle class family had.

How people in the United States do not take 2 hour coffee and cigarette breaks.

Is this the joke section of the comments?

The Taco section, with the way the present American administration has behaved. Most of our friends/allies are looking to protect themselves andbe prepared to go on without us. All it took was two years of buffoonery.

Utter bullshit.

only four countries in the world have private/commercial space launch capacity, and SpaceX towers over everyone else so I'd say this is doing pretty alright compared to the rest of the world

As EV’s have shown, I don’t think they’re gonna be ahead for long and long-term the current technology is just a steppingstone because damaging the ozone layer can’t go on forever with the current technique being used something else. Better has to come forward.