The European Space Agency has given Ariane 6’s prime contractor a €60m (US$82m) contract to continue studying the heavy-lift rocket’s feasibility and design this year.
Airbus Defence and Space, formerly Astrium, said the funding enables it to…
The European Space Agency has given Ariane 6’s prime contractor a €60m (US$82m) contract to continue studying the heavy-lift rocket’s feasibility and design this year.
Airbus Defence and Space, formerly Astrium, said the funding enables it to consolidate the launcher’s main characteristics in time for an ESA review in November 2014.
“Validation of the programme’s smooth progress should allow ESA to set the specifications of the Ariane 6 launch system, which will then enable member states to decide on continuation of the new launcher’s development at the next ESA Ministerial Council meeting, scheduled for December 2014,” it said today in a press statement.
The fine tuning comes alongside the company’s work to upgrade French launch provider Arianespace’s existing Ariane 5 heavy-lift rocket, which will boost its launch capacity by a fifth while maintaining its current costs. That upgrade has been dubbed Ariane 5 ME, which Airbus DS said will have features in common with Ariane 6 and will be ready by 2018.
ESA awarded Airbus DS a €108m contract in January 2013 to support the development of Ariane 5 ME and Airbus 6. Later in October 2013 it awarded an extra €30m for the Ariane 6 study.
The larger rockets will target demand for bigger, more complicated satellites with high throughput technology.
Ariane 5 made its 58th successful launch in a row last week when it placed a bird for private equity-owned Asia Broadcast Satellite and a military spacecraft called Athena-Fidus.
Airbus DS has been overseeing Ariane 5’s industrial work for more than a decade, covering more than 550 companies in 12 European countries.
Speaking after the launch on Friday, head of space systems Francois Auque said: “This 58th successful launch in a row confirms the outstanding industrial capabilities of the business line space systems within Airbus DS as prime contractor since 2003, and its ability to use its experience to implement the industrial organisation for future European launchers.”
