ONLY NOW? ONLY STARTING? Europe is starting to freak out about the launch dominance of SpaceX. “A little more than a week ago, the European Space Agency announced an initiative to study ‘future space transportation solutions.’ Basically, the agency provided about $600,000, each, to three companies—ArianeGroup, Avio, and Rocket Factory Augsburg—to study competitive launch systems from 2030 onward.”

Read the whole thing.

I’d just add that if ESA is going to spend a paltry $600,000 looking into catching up no sooner than 2030 to where SpaceX was in 2015, then they’ve already lost.

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): Jim Bennett emails:

From the article Stephen Green linked about Europeans sponsoring launch competitiveness research:

“Germany, with no history of its own rockets during the European Union era,”

I love the carefully-written qualifier. Don’t mention the war!

Heh. I wondered what Basil Fawlty was doing these days. Writing EU press releases, I guess.

UPDATE (From Ed) Was it over when Germany’s rocket program bombed Pearl Harbor during what the EU retroconned into the “European Civil War?”