At Long Last, Europe Has an Answer to SpaceX (or Does It?)

In 2015, SpaceX changed the space industry, launching and then landing a Falcon 9 orbital-class rocket for the first time in history. Four months later, SpaceX improved on that performance, landing a different Falcon 9 on a drone ship at sea, and over the succeeding years, SpaceX racked up more successful launchings and landings of reusable space rockets, lowering its cost of each rocket with every reuse.With the threat posed by SpaceX's reusable rockets growing too great to ignore, Airbus (OTC: EADSY) sub-subsidiary Arianespace announced Europe would build a reusable rocket of its own. Dubbed ADELINE, for Advanced Expendable Launcher Innovative Engine Economy, this rocket was designed more like a space shuttle, riding rockets to space before landing back on earth like an airplane. A couple of years later, Ariane changed its mind again, announcing a Prometheus reusable rocket that could launch and land on its tail, just like a Falcon 9.But since then... crickets.Continue readingWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei MotleyFool Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei MotleyFool