After much political wrangling between Germany, France and Italy, the member governments of the European Space Agency officially decided to go ahead with the development of the Ariane 6 rocket in December 2014.
European ministers decided that there was a need for a replacement rocket for the Ariane 5, due to cost pressures from commercial startups such as SpaceX and the Falcon 9 rocket. With the design of the Ariane 6, they envisioned a modernized version of the previous rocket, improved cost-effectively. Since Ariane 6 will use a modified Vulcain engine and other components from previous Ariane rockets, the new rocket was expected to launch in 2020.
However, European space policy is just as political as that of the United States, if not more so. European member states provide financial allocations to the European Space Agency and expect approximately this amount in exchange for space projects. Therefore, the development and production of the Ariane 6 spread to a number of countries under the management of a large group, the French Ariane Group.
narrow politics
This approach combined the worst of the narrow politics that guide NASA funding in the United States with the sluggish activity of a traditional aerospace company accustomed to guaranteed contracts. Therefore, naturally, the development of the project was delayed and exceeded the budget. As of this writing, the general launch date for Ariane 6 remains “late 2023,” but the rocket’s first flight will almost certainly slide into 2024. Its development budget has nearly doubled, to $4.4 billion.
That’s a lot of time — nearly a decade — and money for Europe to develop what is essentially a poor version of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. In the nine years since Europe began developing the Ariane 6 rocket to compete with SpaceX, the Falcon 9 rocket has doubled its capacity. It’s virtually payload and has become partially reusable, so it’s now more capable and costs a lot less. It has also launched more than 215 times, which is equal to the number of rockets launched by the Ariane program since 1979. Because of this, the Falcon 9 is now highly reliable and capable of launching on schedule.
So why is Europe developing a rocket that costs more than the Falcon 9 and being late to the party? Because European countries would like independent access to space. This means that European countries can have their own way of putting their most valuable military and scientific satellites into space without having to rely on NASA, Russia or the whims of American billionaires. This is a justified decision in light of the geopolitical events that cut off Europe’s access to the Russian Soyuz missile.
But the Ariane 6 missile is now failing even this most basic and important task. Politico reports The European Commission – the executive arm of the European Union – is looking to buy flights on the Falcon 9 rocket due to persistent delays in the readiness of the Ariane 6 rocket.
In a draft request to the European Union, the bulletin said the European Commission plans to request the green light to negotiate a “special security agreement” with the United States for its rocket companies for “exceptional launches of Galileo satellites.” Galileo is a constellation of European satellites that provides global navigation services for Europe similar to the United States’ Global Positioning System, or GPS. These are quite large satellites, weighing about 700 kg, located in medium Earth orbit.
Bad optics
Previously, the European Commission Book six launches On the Ariane 6 rocket to launch the Galileo satellites — two in 2017 and another four in 2020 — each carrying two satellites. Under the current plan, three such missions are supposed to be launched in 2023. There is no chance of that, of course. These first Galileo flights won’t take place until after the maiden flight of the Ariane 6, so that probably won’t happen before the second half of 2024 at the earliest.
Apparently, the European Commission has seen enough of the Ariane 6 delays. The two American rockets that are able to pick up the slack from a technical point of view are the Falcon 9 rocket from SpaceX and the Vulcan rocket of the United Launch Alliance. The problem for Europe is that Vulcan is also lagging behind on its development curve. The vehicle’s debut is now planned for no later than this summer, and the Vulcan has obligations to the US Department of Defense that will likely preclude accepting new commercial customers for a few years. This leaves only Le Falcon Neuf.
For Europe, the optics on this matter are, of course, daunting. Its commissioners created Ariane 6 to compete with SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. Now, a decade later, officials from the continent will have to negotiate with SpaceX for a flight into space for some of their most valuable satellites—though the cost is likely to be lower and the Falcon 9 is the most reliable rocket in the world, with the lowest insurance costs. It’s a bitter pill to swallow.