Aalice.365 net.columbia utcsrgv!utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!ihnss!mhtsa!alice!sjb Sun Jan 10 15:56:58 1982 competition As cargo space on board the shuttle (and future shuttles) is booked until 1987, some American firms are choosing the European Ariane rocket, which just completed its test program and was announced ``operational,'' over the American Delta rocket for monetary reason. While the shuttle can carry four satellites at a time, at about $8 million each, the Ariane can only carry two satellites at $20 million. But since there is no space on board the shuttle in the near future, and also since the Department of Defense may be able to bump commercial cargo off on short notice, firms are choosing the Ariane over the Delta -- in the next two years, the Ariane rocket has been booked for a total cost of $100 million, while the same satellites on the Delta would cost $125 to $135 million. ----------------------------------------------------------------- gopher://quux.org/ conversion by John Goerzen of http://communication.ucsd.edu/A-News/ This Usenet Oldnews Archive article may be copied and distributed freely, provided: 1. There is no money collected for the text(s) of the articles. 2. The following notice remains appended to each copy: The Usenet Oldnews Archive: Compilation Copyright (C) 1981, 1996 Bruce Jones, Henry Spencer, David Wiseman.