| > the US has a very healthy launch industry. What would a healthy launch industry look like? I don't think that 2022 article necessarily describes one. There is the long bet that won (SpaceX, reuse), the dino (ULA), a NZ transplant still mostly launching outside the US (RocketLab), some hopeful looking startups and always over the horizon Blue Origin. This is a much better situation than the EU caught between the unpalatable antique (Soyuz) and the sailboat waiting for a cargo (Ariane 6). However, it doesn't seem as healthy as the Chinese launch industry, which seems to have many providers launching and iterating with differentiated designs [0], bread-and-butter heavy launches from Long Marches (48 in 2023) [1] and continued work with the Tiangong space station [2]. It doesn't quite compute for me that commies don't have everything under proletarian central control, but they sure seem to be letting a hundred flowers bloom for now. 0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_space_program#List_of_... 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Long_March_launches_(2... 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiangong_space_station 3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundred_Flowers_Campaign |