Isar Aerospace reaches orbit and deploys payloads on second flight

> The US has repeatedly proven that ITAR is for them as much of a military thing as it is an economic one, and that they're willing to use it against allies. If we refuse to learn that lesson, it's on us not them.

I'm actually surprised anyone ever thought it was not a military thing.

I mean it's expected behaviour in one sense but in another it's becoming a bigger geopolitical risk to rely on the US for defence components/technology in the current world, the risk always existed, it's just shifted more one way.

There are a whole bunch of military suppliers across Europe who are in the same boat as MBDA.

Simply put, the US as an ally is less predictable than previously and that has knock-on effects across every sphere.

Does Europe prevent the sale of US products based on that though?

Believe me, I'm even more worried than you. I think Melanchon would actually do more damage, as crazy as it seems, Le Pen is incompetent and a sellout, Melanchon actually believes the BS he vomits.

Macron finished the traditionnal left and right wing parties, which were too large and rotten to the core, but it's left us with a large center and two extremes, it's high time we have the normies left and right come back.

If Mélenchon wins it will evolve to an even stronger stance against imperialism. He is labeled "anti-american"

> didn't Macron also say he would deploy French troops in Ukraine?

AFAIK, he said he didn’t rule out doing that while the war was ongoing (https://edition.cnn.com/2024/02/27/europe/france-macron-troo...), and he signed a declaration of intent to do that if a peace deal with Russia is made (https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c17zee20qpzo)

Neither are what you imply he said.

> didn't Macron also say he would deploy French troops in Ukraine?

No he did not, he said he refused to rule it out: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/27/french-preside...

So I would recommend making sure to inform yourself properly rather than assuming what you read (or thought you read) is correct

> Surely Ukraine is an "EU neighbor". They're currently suffering from an actual aggressor (Putin), not merely theoretical (Trump).

But as you said, they're NOT EU, not in an official military alliance with France. If you cannot see the difference between the two situation, I can't make it any clearer for you.

If you're saying "we should do the same for those that are out that for those that are in", what you are saying is "being in has no purpose, why take the commitment". I believe your point of view is as wrong as can be.

Am no expert at French history, but this feels like cherry-picking to me of what happened to France. From what I read, one of the biggest reasons (besides the defeat at Waterloo) for the downfall of France to Britain was that in the 1700’s, France had wild speculation in the colonies in the Americas, specifically, in the Mississippi Company. When the bubble started collapsing, the Prime Minister at the time (John Law), put a lot of the French treasury into trying to support that bubble, but it collapsed anyway. Now the French government was relatively cash poor, which eventually led to losing a lot of its colonies to Britain, a great deal of unrest in France and the French Revolution.

And I am no history expert, so am unsure of this myself, but in my humble opinion, the idea that monarchy is why France lost its place in the world doesn’t seem like a major factor.

I have no idea what's your point but I have to say I find "The country is [...] siding with islamists" when we were literally the only country willing to defend the freedom to speech and caricature religion a couple years ago against islamism, with Quebec the outlier that sided with us (even though Canada did not).

Overall: I don't think any country should be on top. I'm glad France is not number one, and I hope it remains strong but never get in that position again. Part of why I love the EU is that no one, not even us or germany, is strong enough to fully impose its will without concession. Some would disagree with that, but they clearly don't know their history. So ... I'm not sure what your point is, but I think I disagree with it.

> P.S: the biggest success, from their leftist point of view, of french intellectuals is managing to present national-socialists as "far right" (as if they were fascists)

I wander how "national-socialist" sounds in other European languages, and whether it might have some history of referring to fascist movements. Say, what would the Germans call someone like that? Nationalsozialistische? I don't remember if there is any history about someone who called themselves that being a fascist...

I think it's ridiculous to write that much without realizing the most obvious thing that happened, that France had its birth rate drop first and very quickly, meaning that they lost their demographic advantage against the rest of Europe.

> 15 years to throw away centuries of greatness

Great for whom, exactly?

So you are opposed to self-determination. Glad we cleared that up.

Who then gets to decide? You?

  Rasmus Jarlov: If the US attempts a military takeover of Greenland, “then we are at war”

  On the same day, more soldiers together with the Chief of the Royal Danish Army, General Peter Harling Boysen, started arriving in Greenland, and Denmark announced that a "substantial contribution" of its armed forces would be sent there

  On 14 January 2026, Denmark started to send military reinforcements to Greenland[186] to strengthen its military presence.[187] Later that day, it became known that both Sweden[188] and Norway sent military forces to support the Danish Defence in protecting Greenland.[189] The Ministry of Defence on 14 January 2026 announced "an increased military presence in and around Greenland, comprising aircraft, vessels and soldiers, including from NATO allies".[190] After consultations between a group of European countries,[191] Germany announced it was sending a small contingent to Greenland on a reconnaissance mission with other European nations.[192] On 15 January 2026, a French military contingent arrived in Greenland.[26]

  Several European leaders including France's Emmanuel Macron advocated using the EU's Anti-Coercion Instrument, a security and trade policy tool known as the "trade bazooka", to target the US in retaliation.[258][259][260][29][261] Under the not-previously-used instrument, the EU may adopt countermeasures, sometimes described as sanctions, including tariffs, restrictions on public procurement, and measures affecting trade and investment.[252][262] Bernd Lange, chair of the European Parliament Committee on International Trade, supported its activation.[263] By 21 January EU countries were described as being increasingly open to using the ACI against the US, with Germany stating it will ask the Commission to explore its use.[264]

Must be incredibly humbling experience to not realize EU is a union of independent countries and the US is a federation of states until you work for one of the delegations, wasn't it? Most of us pick up on that even without professional experience about it.

The European parliament and US congress are both just as united and fragmented.

We disagree internally until we find a common posture that we adopt.

I'm not sure why you talk California public sector instead of something involving multiple states that have differing views, that makes your comparison useless, that's why I say US congress.

Note that your misunderstanding of the situation and lack of knowledge about it is not rare per se, to give an exemple that's why a fair amount of brexiter politician were surprised the EU didn't break itself in internal fight over the UK deal (while they were used to the inside squabble when they were a member, and they failed to notice the similarity with their own parliament compared to their country).

That was not a useful metaphor, but by all means try again (if you want) and teach us something interesting (and concrete) based on your unique experience.

1. Who is "they"? Isar Aerospace and Arianespace are distinct entities.

2. Isar Aerospace is the first fully private European company (a startup) to do this. Arianespace and the Ariane rockets have heavy state/ESA involvement.

3. It is the first launch to orbit from geographically European soil. French Guiana is politically part of France, but geographically obviously part of South America.

4. Why would everyone have to launch from the same place, in your esteemed opinion? Why are some US payloads launched from California, some from Florida, and soon some from Texas and Louisiana?

5. Are all launch locations equally suitable for all orbits? Are all orbits equally suitable for all missions?

6. Norway is a lot closer to the rest of Europe than French Guiana is.

7. Why was SpaceX newsworthy, particularly on a startup-centric site, when NASA already exists?

I like variety of bread in Germany, but one of the problems is how quickly it goes mouldy. Even the cheap stuff I had as a student in Aberystwyth (coastal) from Lidl (German chain) didn't go off quite so fast so often.

Bigger economy, yes by about 10x. But despite the spectacle, SpaceX's actual expenses have been around 0.3-0.4% of German GDP in recent years.

It's priorities rather than absolute costs that matter here. Germany could absolutely do all of SpaceX as almost a rounding error, but probably has better things for that money to get spent on.

I am worry about number of satellites above our head by him.

> space on Earth.

I have different take on this. We already shown significant decline in Fertility rate of whole world. Its right now 2.2 against nearly 5 in 1950s till 1970. 2.1 is replacement only. So, we are sorted there from occupying Glaciers,Mountains, etc.

Moreover, Average age of many countries are increasing. That might need support in near future. Migration is filling up that gap in Western world.

As per current prediction world population will peak around 2080s and then decline.

Problem is that decline. Since, Governments are working on selling futures (e.g. Bonds). We need new frontier to make things exciting for new generations up ahead.

The issue there is we aren’t the only force for possible extinction on Earth.

>I hope your institutions and the people's resilience will overcome this dark chapter of American history and build a better foundation on top.

I hope we can scrape it all back to the bedrock foundations of our country before we rebuild anything. I don't want any foundation built on top of this festering layer of bullshit. I'm afraid we will still have foundation problems in the future if we don't examine the reasons why it failed this time and set the rebuilt country up with one less failure mode.

Let's do this once. As they say where I'm from "There's only two ways to do anything - do it right or do it over."

Thanks, it’s been a real trial, but we can feel the momentum shifting - when Trump is truly let loose, he’s his own worst enemy. And agreed, hope our institutions hold up too:)

? Don’t think I was implying I wanted to replace him with another far-right candidate, just someone who is competent in general.

But do agree that we did all voted for him twice, so saying that maybe this is actually what it means to be an American could hold some truth. Still, don’t think so, he’s clearly one of, or the most divisive person in modern American history. It seems like most people here either love him or hate him with every fiber of their being.

> there hasn’t been any significant investment in Eastern part to build an industrial base (except for in Berlin and its suburbs)

Dresden is not a Berlin suburb. When it comes to investment in semiconductor industry, Dresden has likely seen more than the entire rest of Germany together.