ArianeGroup announced Monday the start of production of the first four Ariane 6 launchers, which will fly between 2021 and 2023, in parallel with the latest Ariane 5.
Inaugural flight in 2020
"This is a decisive step for the Ariane 6 program," AFP Stéphane Israel, executive chairman of Arianespace, a company responsible for launching marketing since French Guiana, told AFP.
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The inaugural flight of the future European launcher is scheduled for the second half of 2020. The first Ariane 6 series will come out of the ArianeGroup factories in early 2021. "Our customers are eagerly awaiting Ariane 6 and will be at the rendezvous", insured André-Hubert Roussel, executive chairman of ArianeGroup, in a statement.
Production in France and Germany
These fourteen launchers will be produced in ArianeGroup plants in France and Germany, and in those of its European industrial partners, in the thirteen countries participating in the Ariane 6 program.
This ambitious program of the European Space Agency (ESA) aims to provide Europe with a rocket more competitive than the current Ariane 5 against the intense competition of SpaceX, the American company founded by Elon Musk.
At an ESA board meeting on April 17, the member countries of the agency agreed to commit to the institutional launches of the transition phase between Ariane 5 and Ariane 6. In addition to three Ariane 6 institutional orders already contracted, ESA has agreed to provide a guarantee on four other launches, which paved the way for the launch of production of the first Ariane 6 series by European industry. During this transition period, the last eight Ariane 5s will be produced.