From a sovereignty perspective, does a launch from continental Europe actually matter when Arianespace/CNES/ESA has been launching from France for decades?

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Cyph0n an hour ago | parent | next [-]

But French Guiana is a geographically distant ex-colony, so there will always be a higher probability of future inaccessibility. Same applies to New Caledonia, Martinique, etc.

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orphereus 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Doesn't it matter if this part of France is an ocean away?

	▲	cccbbbaaa 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I do not think so, but anyway, it is definitely not a proof that we are further decoupling ourselves from the US, which is the claim made in the root comment. France has launched rockets from France for decades. Being an ocean away does not make Kourou reliant on the US.

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vik0 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

There is no sovereignty perspective because Europe isn't even sovereign to begin with. For starters it doesn't even have a common army

	▲	gpm 2 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		The sovereignty perspective here is the perspective of the sovereignty of the states that make up Europe not the sovereignty of the entity of the EU/Europe. Though not every sovereign state has an army, see Iceland, Costa Rica, theoretically Japan, etc.
	▲	3 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
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