Why Is Webb Telescope Being Launched On

[166p1]

One question - why is the Webb telescope ... which has NASA
tags on it ... being launched with Ariane instead of a USA
provider ? Either the Falcon9 (without recovering booster) or
Atlas-V should have been up to the job. Musk also has the
"heavy" ...

Or was there THAT much EU tech and money in the thing ?

Ariane is perfectly good - but why truck the thing way
down south instead of just over to Florida ? Seems
like more risk and more expense.

Well .. if something goes wrong ... we can blame the EU
for mis-handling the scope eh ? :-)

I've wondered why Musk never made a "somewhat heavier" ...
two F9 boosters with a cap across them holding the
upper stage ... might be more generally useful than
either the F9 or Heavy given the mass of what people
want to launch these days - maybe 80,000 lbs to LEO
WITH booster recovery.