Europe's bumpy road to rocket development

The European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) has canceled plans to use the Ariane 6 rocket, which was jointly developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) and ArianeGroup, and switched to cooperating with the American company SpaceX.

Ariane 6 rocket. (Source: ESA webcast)

The French newspaper Le Monde reported on June 28 that the decision was made just two weeks before Arianespace - a subsidiary of ArianeGroup - is scheduled to conduct the first launch of Ariane 6, scheduled for July 9.

This is considered the latest blow to Europe's space efforts, after four years of delays for the Ariane 6 project. The rocket launch system was originally scheduled to launch in 2020, but the Covid-19 pandemic and many technical problems prevented the system from operating.

The EUMETSAT Executive Council has asked the board of directors representing the 30-member organization to use SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket to launch the MTG-S1 weather satellite. This means that EUMETSAT has decided to cancel the contract signed with Arianespace four years ago. Le Monde did not specify the exact reason why EUMETSAT turned its back on Arianespace to "join hands" with SpaceX of American billionaire Elon Musk.

In a post on LinkedIn, Philippe Baptiste, CEO of the French space agency CNES, said this was "disappointing for Europe's space efforts, at a time when all the major powers developing space missions on the continent, as well as the European Commission, are calling for European satellites to be launched on European launch pads."

Europe’s Ariane 6 project is currently significantly behind SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. The Ariane 6 has a total of 30 missions on order to date, with a planned launch frequency of nine per year. Meanwhile, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket has planned 144 launches in 2024 alone.

Another advantage that makes the Falcon 9 superior to the Ariane 6 is that SpaceX's rocket is reusable.

Launched in 2014, Ariane 6 was developed by ArianeGroup - a joint venture between European aircraft manufacturer Airbus and French aircraft equipment manufacturer Safran - to compete with American space exploration company SpaceX.

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/chang-duong-gap-ghenh-phat-trien-ten-lua-cua-chau-au-276842.html