Europe May Finally Have Found a Space Entrepreneur Who Is Meeting the Moment (arstechnica.com)
- Reference: 0185573664
- News link: https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/09/10/0236233/europe-may-finally-have-found-a-space-entrepreneur-who-is-meeting-the-moment
- Source link: https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/09/as-europe-flounders-in-space-a-rising-french-star-may-show-the-way/
> "The fundraise we have done right now is not sufficient to build the massive rocket we have in mind, so there will be another fundraise," she said. "Right now, we're going to be very, very focused on the execution. We must dock with the space station, with the capsule, as fast as possible. We must build this rocket engine and de-risk it as fast as possible. I think once one of these two milestones is achieved, we'll be talking fundraise again."
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> Critics may look at Huby and her company and say that is a lot of big talk for a company that only has a single, partial success in spaceflight to its credit. And sure, it is. But that's kind of the point. So much of the spaceflight community in Europe has been concerned with either the large aerospace primes seeking government handouts to protect their turf or small launch startups. There has been a stunning lack of big, visionary thinking.
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> Few people on the continent seem to recognize that multibillion investments by US companies such as SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Amazon in space, and their many imitators in China, are radically transforming spaceflight. As the world changes, Huby does not seem willing to stand on the sidelines in Europe and bemoan capitalism in space. Rather, she seems to be saying it is not too late for Europe to seize the day.
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> "We need to have European politicians who are ambitious," she said. "Entrepreneurs cannot do this alone. We need to be backed by the politicians and by the European Space Agency. But we have to start by achieving the crazy targets that we've set up for ourselves. That will give trust to others to believe in what we're doing."
[1] https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/09/as-europe-flounders-in-space-a-rising-french-star-may-show-the-way/
Re: (Score:2)
I think you mean, "sectarianism".
"Finally"? (Score:4, Interesting)
Whatever happened to Richard Branson? Virgin Galactic was one of the major players at the start of the current wave of private launch vehicles but seems to have completely dropped off the radar.
Re: (Score:2)
Pump and dump. Sold all his stock in that venture to support his other ventures.
Re: (Score:3)
He was working on low mass low cost to orbit, but it seems that ride-share is going to be the preferred way to do that.
Re: (Score:2)
"400,000-pound-thrust" wtf does that mean?
Re: (Score:2)
it means 12,869,600 slugs accelerated at 1ft/s^2
Re: (Score:2)
> "meeting the moment" wtf does that mean?
It's a less rapey version of "seizing the moment."
Re: (Score:1)
People tend to use buzz words when they don't know what they are talking about. More space stuff is always good. I hope it works out.
People chasing money (Score:1)
Aren't going to advance space travel. Space travel is difficult and expensive. The parts of it that are monetizable aren't going to be innovative or advance human civilization. Basic science does not pay off in most people's lifetimes.
So like every one of these tech Bros he's going to take a bunch of existing technology and a bunch of government contracts and a bunch of money from your 401k assuming your European and maybe even from my 401k since us Americans are handing out to rich people like it's ca
Don't inflate her ego (Score:2)
Please, don't inflate her ego with this kind of nonsense. Last thing we need is to create the Elon Musk of Europe.
And I may have found... (Score:2)
a bullshit story.
Re: (Score:1, Troll)
My money says she's more likely to turn out to be Europe's Elizabeth Holmes than their Elon Musk. Another just so story too good to be true.
Hardly Re:"rocket ambition dept"? (Score:2)
Holmes faked her demonstrator.
Don't think you can fake rockets. She's already launched one.
"Bemoan capitalism in space" , who's moaning? I am up for capitalism in space, certainly like to see a lot less of it on earth. Produces a lot of billionaire wankers. Let the suck vacuum.
Re: (Score:2)
And billionaires like Taylor Swift, Oprah Winfrey, JK Rowling, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas...
Re: Hardly Re:"rocket ambition dept"? (Score:1)
One of those people actually has an original bone in her body - and refuses to be an NWO mouthpiece.
Kind of sexy, too, for an older woman.
Re: (Score:1)
You don't have to fake it. You do run-of-the-mill launches that anyone can do with existing tech and then you continuously promise amazing things that never happened. That's what muskrat did and when you see something that works you copy it.
Over promise, under deliver, and then loot everyone's retirement savings to make yourself a billionaire or maybe even a trillionaire. That is how our economy works here in America and I guarantee you we're going to export that same trick to europe. Because the worst
Re: (Score:2)
Well, it kinda sounds more like someone running a spaceflight company who doesn't already have billions on hand to build it with, like Musk did. Though I can't find how much she's actually worth. Odd, that.
Re: (Score:2)
It's about Europe having the ability to put a lot of mass into space without relying on other countries.
Re: (Score:2)
> ... space nerd and visionary like Elon ...
So THAT's what shills and trolls are calling grifters and con men these days? Good to know.
Re: (Score:2)
Pioneering reusable rockets, manned launches to the ISS, a super heavy lifter, lowest launch cost on the planet, a launch cadence that looks like something from an SF novel, and a satellite constellation that brings in enough money to pretty much self-fund the development of their future spacecraft. And in case anyone wants to point out their income from lucrative launch deals with the US government, one should also consider not how much those contracts are costing the US taxpayer, but how much they are sa