> from European soil

When someone emphasizes nationalism a bit too much that's usually only because they don't have enough technical merit to talk about.

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sinuhe69 40 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

No. It’s simply about accessibility and sovereignty. Even though the ESA can launch from French Guiana, the space port is an ocean-away from Europe! How much do you think that fact will affect the cost and the launch cadence for Europe?

Now they prove they can launch directly from Norway with their own production from Munich and elsewhere and that has immense potential for the future: much higher cadence, significant lower cost and always-on accessibility.

The only way, Europe can have a Starlink similar network is to launch from their own soil and reuse the first stage. Also from the perspective of security, launching spy and other military satellites from European soil is the only practical possibility in this political climate.

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fsh an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

Launching far off the equator makes it more difficult and is therefore a bigger technological achievement.

	▲	ButlerianJihad an hour ago \| parent [-]
		The selection of launch site takes the orbital inclination into account. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun-synchronous_orbit The "Onward and Upward" cube sats were deployed to Sun-synchronous orbits, with a roughly polar inclination. Similarly, launches from USSF Base Vandenberg take a southerly trajectory, so it can be used for orbits like that. Rocket launches from continental Europe have been challenging because of the population centers, and the unpopularity of things exploding over their heads, and falling on their houses and businesses. USA and Russia have some quite ideal sites that avoid flying over populated areas.