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After much political wrangling among Germany, France, and Italy, the member governments of the European Space Agency formally decided to move ahead with development of the Ariane 6 rocket in December 2014. A replacement rocket for the Ariane 5 was needed, European ministers decided, because of cost pressure from commercial upstarts like SpaceX and its Falcon 9 rocket. With the design of the Ariane 6, they envisioned a modernized version of the previous rocket, optimized for cost. Because Ariane 6 would use a modified Vulcain engine and other components from previous Ariane rockets, it was anticipated that the new rocket would debut in 2020. How the European Union Turned to Elon Musk After Ariane 6 Proving Disaster To ESA? European space policy, however, is every bit as political as that of the United States, if not more so. Member nations of Europe make financial allocations to the European Space Agency and expect roughly that amount of money in return in terms of space projects. So the development and production of Ariane 6 was spread across a number of nations under management of a large conglomerate, France-based ArianeGroup. Parochial politics This approach combined the worst of the parochial politics that guide NASA funding in the United States with the sluggish activity of a traditional aerospace company accustomed to guaranteed contracts. Naturally, therefore, development of the project has lagged and gone over budget. As of this writing, the public date for the debut launch of Ariane 6 remains “late 2023,“ but the rocket's first flight will certainly slip into 2024. And its development budget has nearly doubled, to $4.4 billion. That is a lot of time—nearly a decade—and money for Europe to develop what is essentially a poorer version of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket. In the nine years since Europe began development of the Ariane 6 to compete with SpaceX, the Falcon 9 rocket has nearly doubled its payload capacity and become partially reusable, so it is now more capable and costs far less. It has also launched more than 215 times, which is nearly as many rockets as the Ariane program has launched since 1979. Because of this, the Falcon 9 is now extremely reliable and capable of launching on schedule. So why is Europe developing a rocket that costs more than a Falcon 9 and is a decade late to the party? Because European nations desire independent access to space. This means that European nations can have their own way of putting their most valuable military and scientific satellites into space without having to rely on NASA, Russia, or the whims of American billionaires. This is a justifiable decision in light of geopolitical events that have cut off Europe's access to the Russian Soyuz rocket. #spacex #arianespace #spacelaunch
