On 2005-08-25, Herb Schaltegger wrote:
The ONLY way that could be true would be if the hypothetical Ariane V
STS replacement aeroshell has the same interfaces and launch
environment as an STS cargo bay.

It only needs interfaces/a launch environment that is compatible with
Columbus ;-)

somewhat time consuming and costly (a $million here, a $million there...).
Try "billion" and you get the idea. :-/

It seems that ESA thinks so too:

** 2: ESA EVALUATES OPTIONS FOR ISS ASSEMBLY

Jean-Jacques Dordain, Director-General of ESA announced that the agency is
evaluating different scenarios for the International Space Station (ISS)
assembly completion, including one in which the Space Shuttle could not
launch the European Columbus module. This science laboratory, a major
European contribution to the ISS program, is completed and in storage at
EADS Space Transportation's facilities in Germany. ESA has already spent 300
million euros in delay-related costs of the Columbus's launch and is
concerned that these costs arise [sic] since the launch of the module is likely to
happen in 2007.

quote from

France in Space #303
http://eu.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=17608
Thursday, August 4, 2005