“A Space Elevator to replace the shuttle”

It’s very nice to see the International Space Elevator Consortium (ISEC) get a mention in a non-English publication.

In the online article, “Un ascenseur spatial pour remplacer la navette” (A space elevator to replace the shuttle), we read that, according to ISEC, “…each kilogram into orbit returns to a few tens of dollars, against 20 000 for a launch with an Ariane rocket or Titan.  This is the google translation of the original French.  I’m not sure where the author got that information from – we haven’t made that promise, but perhaps there was an error in the translation.

Also, no mention of Yuri Artsutanov or Jerome Pearson, the real intellectual fathers of the Space Elevator.

But these are minor quibbles – in general the article seemed to be well-written and did mention the upcoming Space Elevator Conference.

4 thoughts on ““A Space Elevator to replace the shuttle”

  1. Ted Semon Post author

    I think it’s pretty clear that they won’t, and, with the cost overruns, trip ‘underruns’ and all the problems they’ve had with this program, I think that’s fine…

    What’s NOT fine is that the lack of planning by Congress has now allowed us to be in the position of hoping the Russians will continue to sell us space on their rockets so that we can get stuff to the ISS. IMHO, it should have never come to that…

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