Ariane 6 with two boosters – artist view

Artist’s view of an Ariane 6 with two boosters, known as Ariane 62.

ESA and European industry has developed a new-generation launcher: Ariane 6. This follows a decision taken at the ESA Council meeting at Ministerial level in December 2014, to maintain Europe’s leadership in the fast-changing commercial launch service market while responding to the needs of European institutional missions.

This move is associated with a change in the governance of the European launcher sector, based on a sharing of responsibility, cost and risk by ESA and industry.

The participating states are: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.