Slashdot Mirror
Airbus Attacked By French Lawmaker For Talking To SpaceX
schwit1 (797399) writes A French lawmaker lashed out at Airbus for daring to consider SpaceX as a possible launch option for a European communications satellite. "The senator, Alain Gournac, who is a veteran member of the French Parliamentary Space Group, said he had written French Economy and Industry Minister Emmanuel Macron to protest Airbus' negotiations with Hawthorne, California-based Space Exploration Technologies Corp. for a late 2016 launch instead of contracting for a launch on a European Ariane 5 rocket. "The negotiations are all the more unacceptable given that, at the insistence of France, Europe has decided to adopt a policy of 'European preference' for its government launches," Gournac said. "This is called playing against your team, and it smacks of a provocation. It's an incredible situation that might lead customers to think we no longer have faith in Ariane 5 — and tomorrow, Ariane 6."
We already know that whenever there is a headline that contains "French Lawmaker" it is going to be an idiotic remark that is inconsequential to anything. We might as well just ignore whatever French Lawmakers say.
while(1) attack(People.Sandy);
If they had to run a company they'd run it into the ground instead of towards success. That's why they're politicians. Airbus, not the most efficient of global corporations, can remain a profitable concern only by making rational commercial decisions. If that means negotiating with a non-European supplier then the good French senator Alain Gournac ought to find out why Ariane 5 (or 6) were deficient and figure out how to make them competitive. But that would require the Monsieur Gournac to pull his thumb outta his ass and do some real work. Non, pas acceptable!
Well, France (through Arianespace) actually IS the world leader in commercial space flight. At about the same level as Russia, depending on the metrics you use. The US are actually far behind.
It can't be any more humiliating than your quick surrender to Germany.
I love Americans. So quick to call out the French for surrendering when they've never faced the prospect of enemy soldiers on their home soil. You know, the US might actually benefit from an invasion or two; perhaps they'd be less quick to start wars in other countries if the citizenry had lived through one themselves within living memory.
Uh, give another go at history. The British army was the homeland army in the US and the actual resident armed force. Yours was a secession war that effectively created your national identity (or officialized it, depends on the point of view). The only real foreign attack you had on your soil was Pearl Harbor, and that wasn't an invasion.