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German company set for first commercial rocket launch from Europe (www.newscientist.com)

submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Preparations are under way for a rocket test flight in Norway that could make history and give Europe greater independence from the market leader in orbital launches, the United States.

Isar Aerospace says it is planning to launch on 24 March between 12.30pm and 3.30pm CET, weather permitting.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I agree with you but for different reasons. The rockets can be considered as pollution. But they have a purpose.

We should focus on how we abandoned nuclear energy and instead still use coal and even expand our coal mines. That is far worse in my opinion. We are literally coloured black on pollution maps, together with Poland. Meanwhile, France, the undisputed nuclear endorser in Europe, is the exact opposite.

Our „Atomkraft, nein danke!“ attitude stinks.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 22 hours ago)

This whole "expanding coal mines" meme is a bit of a joke. Germany is now using a similar amount of coal as in the 60s, i.e. coal usage has dropped massively in recent years. If people hadn't voted for CxU this year, it probably would have dropped to (near) zero until 2030. We'll see what we get with the new coalition that is probably eager to keep coal usage stable, so those highly-subsidized coal jobs can remain. [Notably though, the same people who whine the most about the death of nuclear also whine the most about the impending death of coal.]

And you can criticize the (CxU!) decision to phase out nuclear first, rather than coal, but coal does have advantages in that it is both cheaper to operate than nuclear and it is possible to regulate the amount of energy produced within days, [so using coal to avert the effects of the dreaded dunkelflaute is actually possible with coal but not with nuclear.]

The old nuclear plants didn't have their major checkup for 13 years either, which is essentially the entire time since the regulations were strengthened post-Fukushima. Getting them up to par would have necessitated major investments. In addition, the nuclear plants were dependent on fuel rods produced by a Russian-owned supply chain.