This is a first for space Europe.

ArianeGroup unveiled a new “fully reusable” rocket upper stage project on Sunday.

It will be able to carry out automated cargo missions for the transport of freight and payloads (satellites) “or manned flights with a crew of up to five astronauts”.

Called Susie, the flexible vessel will be able to fly both with an Ariane 6 rocket, whose maiden flight is scheduled for 2023, and with a heavy launcher of the next generation, detailed the manufacturer of Ariane launchers at the International Astronautical Congress in Paris.

“Innovative” technology

"Fully reusable", Susie (Smart Upper Stage for Innovative Exploration) will be an upper stage that will replace the fairing of the launcher to carry out missions in space and return to land on Earth, specifies ArianeGroup in a press release.

This return will be “smooth, after a high-precision atmospheric re-entry” and a vertical landing.

With an "innovative" technology, different from that of the rockets of the American SpaceX: the latter return to Earth immediately after launch, when Susie's concept provides for a return once the space mission has been carried out, explained Morena Bernardini, director of strategy and innovation at ArianeGroup.

To compete with Elton Musk

It will have a large interior bay of 40 m3, and will be able to “bring back to Earth up to seven tonnes of cargo, which is unlike anything that exists today.

The vehicle will be able to reach lunar orbit and will be able to receive a supply module for astronauts.

This project is a first for space Europe, which currently does not master reusable technology and faces fierce competition from launchers from SpaceX, Elon Musk's company.

#IAC2022 - @Elisabeth_Borne: “We have 4 ambitions:


1. Autonomous access to #space, which means European preference for launches.


2. Take the turn of constellations and space services, with the sovereign constellation project.

@SpacEarth_In pic.twitter.com/54R44LQeeg

— GIFAS (@GifasOfficiel) September 18, 2022

Access to this content has been blocked to respect your choice of consent

By clicking on "

I ACCEPT

", you accept the deposit of cookies by external services and will thus have access to the content of our partners

I ACCEPT

And to better remunerate 20 Minutes, do not hesitate to accept all cookies, even for one day only, via our "I accept for today" button in the banner below.

More information on the Cookie Management Policy page.


Behind the rest of the world

Europe also does not have a program to send its astronauts into space and depends on a barter system used so far with the Russians and the Americans.

Faced with the rush for the Moon and the appearance of private players in manned flight, the European space community is campaigning for it to acquire its own means.

An ambition supported by Elisabeth Borne, who spoke on this subject at the International Astronautical Congress in Paris

ArianeGroup will submit the Susie project to the ministerial meeting of the European Space Agency (ESA), whose 22 member states will meet next November to decide on the budget for the next three years.

Susie would complete Thémis, a reusable lower-stage technology demonstrator currently under development within the group.

Science

Perseverance: NASA's rover has detected potential biosignatures on Mars

Did you see ?

A mysterious ball of fire lights up the sky and panics hundreds of Britons

  • Space

  • Rocket

  • Moon

  • Space conquest

  • Europe

  • Elon Musk