This is basically a nonsense hitpeace. The EU beat SpaceX? Laughable! Arianespace lives of subsidies and throw away their rockets after a single use. If they outbid SpaceX on a 90 million dollar deal it will probably cost the EU 180 million. SpaceX meanwhile is about to build the first real spaceship which will be able to launch more than has been launched in the entirety of history in a single year. The Falcon series is already 80% reusable and they are now waiting for customers - a new problem in the space industry. Dragon capsule is mostly "behind" because of Nasa bureaucracy and every competing project is much further behind. > It would have had to drop its price to match SpaceX's (which, as we already know, Ariane cannot do while earning a profit). From the link in the linked article.