TECH - European Space Agency Director Dismisses SpaceX's Starship Says It Won't Be 'Game-Changer' Or 'Real Competitor' To Ariane 6 | Benzinga
European Space Agency (ESA) director of space transportation Toni Tolker-Nielsen thinks that SpaceX’s Starship will neither be a game changer nor a real competitor to its Ariane 6 satellite launcher immediately.
What Happened: While SpaceX’s Starship is designed to fly people to the moon and Mars, ESA’s Ariane 6 is to launch a four or five-ton satellite, the executive said in an interview with SpaceNews.
“Starship will not eradicate Ariane 6 at all,” Tolker-Nielsen said while adding that things might change in the future.
In the future, say sometime in 2040, the space travel industry might have advanced to have a space transportation logistics system with recurrent and reusable launchers flying to a hub, the executive said. Starship will probably have a major role in carrying heavy cargo to this hub “like a container ship getting to a terminal,” he ...