Europe’s independence at stake
Ariane 64 “is an additional level of performance,” Hermann Ludwig Moeller, director of the European Space Policy Institute, said. “In itself, this is an important step in the whole program, hoping to demonstrate that this configuration works as reliably as Ariane 6 has been working so far.”
The rocket’s institutional missions last year included launches of a French military reconnaissance satellite, a weather satellite, and EU-sponsored Earth-observation radar and navigation satellites.
Moeller argued there can hardly be any comparison with SpaceX, which dominates the sector with its reusable rocket model.
SpaceX “builds the rockets, builds the satellites and also sells the service” while Europe operates under a different industrial setup with separate companies responsible for launchers, satellite manufacturing and satellite operations, he said.
For Ariane 6, a key challenge will be diversifying its European customer base, which could involve a system of European preference for government missions and further development of commercial markets across the continent, Moeller argued.
Independent access to space remains the core objective of the program to “allow Europe to meet its own needs,” stressed Arnaud Demay, the Ariane 6 project manager.
ArianeGroup is also preparing for the future, working “on key technology bricks … to enable the reuse of certain launcher components. Ideally, we would like to be able to reuse an entire stage, including the engines that powered its liftoff,” Demay said.
Demay confided he almost always cries with emotion at seeing the rocket lifting off.
“We do it so rarely, and it’s so majestic when it takes off: that little touch of magic inevitably overwhelms me with emotion every time,” he said.