EU's Galileo - What's the chance it blows up on launch?

[MadRat]

The non-American space agencies have had a very rough time of it these last three years. Brazil, Pakistan, Iran, India, China, and even the Europeans in general have had a seriously poor run of getting consistent space transportation online. The Russians and Americans seem to have this endeavour pretty well handled except for the occassional shuttle disaster.

Vote for if you think Russia's launch for the EU's Galileo will make it or not!

 

[CanOWorms]

The reason why they fail many times is because they don't have much expertise in the area (I'm talking about the countries except US & Russia). Even if they fail, it's a step towards the right direction.

 

[Colt45]

Sojuz is pretty tried and true. i mean the design is old as hell now.


besides.. russians are smarter than yankees


Sojuz

 

[maddogchen]

Why isn't it going up in an EU rocket?

 

[freegeeks]

I don' t know al lot about the Indian, Brazilian spaceprograms but the ESA is launching stuff into space on a regular basis
A few days ago they successfully launched the Rosetta probe with an Ariane 5 rocket.

Arianespace is the biggest player in the commercial satellite business (more then 50% market share)

Arianespace also bought the Soyuz launch vehicle because that way Europe has its own vehicle to launch its astronauts into space. Until now the European had to hitch a ride from the NASA or the Russian Space Agency. They are building a launchpad for the Soyuz at the Kourou space centre. First flight is for 2006.

btw, the Soyuz is probably the most reliable launch vehicle ever designed. The Russians are using is for decades now and it's a proven, safe and very cost effective rocket.

Soyuz at Kourou program

so I don't see why you are saying "...and even the Europeans in general have had a seriously poor run of getting consistent space transportation online"

I can't comment on the other space agencies because I don't know enough about them

 

[dpm]

When it comes to space the russkies build stuff that just works. May not be pretty, but it does tend to be reliable.

 

[DivideBYZero]

Originally posted by: maddogchen
Why isn't it going up in an EU rocket?

The Arriane is grounded AFAIK after issues. No time to google it.

 

[thebeigebeast]

Originally posted by: CanOWorms
The reason why they fail many times is because they don't have much expertise in the area (I'm talking about the countries except US & Russia). Even if they fail, it's a step towards the right direction.

i agree when it comes to the big projects we lack experience, and are underfunded. the beagle mission was done on about 20% of the american mars mission budget, you get a lot more reliability with that kind of money.

 

[freegeeks]

Originally posted by: DivideBYZero

Originally posted by: maddogchen
Why isn't it going up in an EU rocket?

The Arriane is grounded AFAIK after issues. No time to google it.

I think you are mixing up the delayed launch of the Rosetta probe by an Ariane 5 due to high winds. (see my previous post).

the launch of the Galileo satellites by Soyuz rockets was announced 2 days ago and the effective launch is scheduled by the end of 2005. linky

The ESA (Arianespace) bought the Soyuz vehicle and it's now in the offical lineup of the ESA.
Arianespace launchers

basically since last month the Soyuz is also now an "ESA rocket" ,built by the Russians and financed and marketed by starsem, a French-Russian joint-venture with Arianespace and EADS as important European partners.

 

[CaptnKirk]

Space Truck reliability with that thing.