The repercussions of this for the space industry could be broad and unforeseeable.
There have been reports that Yuzhnoye Design Office in Ukraine has been destroyed. Yuzhnoye is the manufacturer of the 1st stage Antares tank, so if these reports are true, then Antares will never be able to launch again after NG-19. pic.twitter.com/UzfUrMXRoU
By the time Europe could develop its own crew launcher, it would be past obsolete (just as Ariane 6 is). They should be focusing on getting around in space with their own vehicles, not getting there.
Whenever I see a breakthrough in processing like this, I always wonder how applicable it will be to space resources.
When I was at Rockwell thirty years ago, one of the projects I managed, with Ed McCullough (who died a couple years ago–NSS needs to update the page) and the late Bob Waldron was in adapting processes they’d been working on for beneficiation of lunar regolith to recover high-quality silicon and other things from fly ash. I guess it ended up not going anywhere after I left in 1993.
Reusable rockets have significant economic advantages at scale against aircraft for long haul. It’s partly because they don’t have to fight drag through the atmosphere for the whole trip.