As soon as Badis's words were out, the dozen or so representatives in the room became a mess, emitting various ambiguous noises.
Italy does have some aerospace technical strength, but mainly in the manufacturing of space capsules. Rockets? It takes the combined effort of 11 countries to produce an Ariane rocket.
Italy alone? A reusable rocket with a payload capacity of 30 tons?
Antoine, "Director Badis, we would all welcome it if you want to develop your own rockets. I hope that when Ariane 10 retires, Veneto One will be able to replace it."
Laughter immediately filled the room. Antoine was obviously being sarcastic. The Ariane rockets were primarily led by France, a traditional European industrial powerhouse, which also found it difficult to single-handedly support a heavy-lift rocket project and eventually chose to co-develop with the European Space Agency.
It's not necessarily impossible to push it alone, but the progress... that's hard to say.
