Threatened with downgrading by the irresistible rise of SpaceX, the European space industry is mobilizing.
In a joint declaration, Bruno Le Maire, the Minister of the Economy, in charge by Emmanuel Macron of the space file, and his Italian counterpart, Giancarlo Giorgetti, call for a
“coordinated technological and industrial approach”
to develop the successors of Ariane 6 , which is due to enter service in 2022. Paris and Rome have created a
"working group on the future of European launchers"
.
He is due to hand in his conclusions in September.
The two ministers call on the European Space Agency and its member states as well as the European Commission to join this group.
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The Franco-Italian observation is clear:
"The economic conditions for the operation of Ariane 6 and Vega C, which are completing their development, have deteriorated considerably compared to the assumptions made when these programs were launched in 2014."
Meanwhile, SpaceX, supported by NASA funding, has become the world's number one launcher with the Falcon 9, a reusable rocket, with which it slashes prices on the commercial market.
SpaceX has also enabled the United States to regain their autonomy in manned flights with its Crew Dragon capsule.
And it deploys at high speed a giant constellation in low orbit.
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However, Europe does not have a constellation, depends on Russia and the United States to send its astronauts into space, and Ariane 6 and Vega C will not be reusable.
There is an urgent need to react.
But we have to take into account a complicated European context.
The Franco-Italian initiative, with its industrialists behind it, Ariane Group, manufacturer of Ariane, and Avio, manufacturer of Vega, should also be read as an attempt to counterbalance German ambitions.
Berlin is no longer hiding its desire to develop a new family of launchers from a micro-rocket.
This to the detriment of France's historic leadership in the Ariane program and that of Italy in small rockets.