European institutions sign Joint Statement on European Institutional Exploitation of Ariane 6 and Vega-C
Today, the ESA Council met at ministerial level in Madrid to discuss the proposal of ESA’s Director General Jan Wörner for a “United Europe in Space”.
At this meeting, a joint statement on the institutional exploitation of Ariane 6 and Vega-C was signed by Jan Wörner, ESA Director General; Roberto Battiston, President at Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI); Javier Ponce, Director General at the Centro para el Desarrollo Tecnológico Industrial (CDTI); Jean-Yves Le Gall, President at the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES); Walther Pelzer, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR); and Mauro Dell’ Ambrogio, Secretary of State of the Swiss Confederation.
Through this Statement, the signatories express their full support to the European launcher industry and to Ariane 6 and Vega-C. They recognise the benefit of aggregating their institutional demand for launch services to ensure an independent, cost-effective, affordable, and reliable access to space for Europe.
The Joint Statement also establishes a high-level forum with the objective to exchange on economic and financial trends on the worldwide launch service market, launch services needs for their missions, and consolidation of a European institutional launch planning. This forum will be open to all European institutional customers of launch services and interested potential parties sharing these objectives.
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Space capacities are strategically important to civil, commercial, security and defence-related policy objectives. Space is an enabler for responding to societal challenges and for stimulating job and growth creation. Europe needs to maintain a leading position in this sector. Europe’s autonomy of action in space is conditional on autonomy in accessing space.
Ariane 6 is Europe’s newest launcher, designed to extend guaranteed access to space for Europe at a competitive price. Fully versatile, it is capable of carrying out all types of missions to all orbits. It features a modular design with two versions: Ariane 62, fitted with two P120C boosters, and Ariane 64, with four. Its maiden flight is planned for mid-2020.
Vega-C is expected to debut at the end of 2019 with P120C as the first-stage motor, which will increase performance from Vega’s current 1.5 t to about 2.2 t in a reference 700 km polar orbit. The additional performance, improved avionics, mission flexibility and expanded fairing volume can capture a wider market of satellites.