[cfgvjkljhgfb]

ESA manages to launch telescopes much more complex than Hubble in spite of not owning a single rocket.

[arethuza]

In case anyone is wondering, I presume this is a reference to the ESA Herschel telescope launched by Arianespace:

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Herschel/index.html

[pavlov]

ESA does have the Ariane 5 rocket:

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Launchers_Access_to_Space/SEMEUB...

[arethuza]

From my reading of the relevant wikipedia page is looks like ESA gets the private company EAD Astrium to develop Ariane launchers and Arianespace, which is also a private company, to actually launch them and market them for commercial launches:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariane_%28rocket_family%29

[cfgvjkljhgfb]

Arguements about government ownership of EADS aside - the important part is that ESA is free to launch on Ariane, Soyuz, Chinese or any other rocket without it becoming a congressional matter.