The heaviest version of Ariane 6, equipped with four boosters, will launch into Guyana’s skies in the second half of 2025. A total of five launches of the new European rocket are planned this year. At the invitation of the Association of Professional Aeronautics and Space Journalists (AJPAE), the managers of ArianeGroup and Arianespace explained what to expect.
After the first successful launch of Ariane 6 on July 9th, the new European rocket will soon be put back into service. In fact, five launches are planned for 2025. The first of the year with a French strategic satellite in its disguise must take place between mid-February and the end of March. This is again the smallest version of the new European A62 rocket.
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Its big sister, the A64, equipped with four boosters, will take off for the first time from the Kourou space center (French Guiana) in the second half of 2025. The launch vehicle will then be responsible for placing around thirty Kuiper satellites into orbit on Amazon. Like SpaceX’s Starlink constellation, the e-commerce giant aims to deploy more than 3,200 satellites in low orbit to provide high-speed global internet access.
18 launches for Amazon entered in the order book
If the American company is a major customer for Arianespace, this is not a priority. “The deployment plan for the Kuiper satellites has been discussed and agreed with the customer,” explains Caroline Arnoux, commercial manager of Ariane 6. “We have 18 Amazon launches in our order book, but we also need to serve other customers, including institutional ones Customers.” We therefore respect the contractual priority rules that exist in our contracts.
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ArianeGroup has set a target date of 2027 for the Ariane 6 program to be in full swing and profitable. “Our economic model is based on 10 annual flights,” says Martin Sion, Managing Director of ArianeGroup. The goal is to operate 4 institutional flights and 6 commercial flights per year and everything indicates that by the end of the decade this model will work.”
The competition from SpaceX and its Falcon 9 rocket and from Blue Origin with its New Glenn heavy launch vehicle does not worry the Europeans too much. For Caroline Arnoux, “Ariane 6’s flexibility and versatility make it the perfect size to meet the new requirements of constellations and the increased need for sovereign access to space. Today, Ariane 6 is demonstrating its competitiveness through its notebook orders and through the advanced discussions we have had with other customers since its maiden flight.”
“Finding the way to collaboration again”
But European space travel is not out of the woods yet; it needs money to stay in the game. At just under 8 billion euros in 2025, the budget of the European Space Agency (ESA), which accounts for 60% of public procurement for the European space industry, is three times smaller than that of NASA. Josef Aschbacher, Director General of ESA, wants to call on the 23 member states next November to increase their resources.
In addition to this financial aspect, Europe also needs to strengthen its relationships. The recent divorce between Italy’s Avio and Arianespace as well as Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni’s approach to SpaceX are cause for concern. “In order for Europe to maintain its position as a major world power, it must at some point return to the path of cooperation,” emphasizes the Executive President of the ArianeGroup. “We must particularly promote the idea of European sovereignty in access to space in the defense sector,” he emphasizes.
Space Europe is moving forward gradually but decisively. After optimizing Ariane 6, it will soon explore a partially reusable European mini-launch vehicle, Maia. Then it’s time to think about a new launch vehicle that will best meet their needs by 2040.