Obsolete even before the first launch - this rocket shows Europe's loss of power

Jeff Bezos was certainly not happy to hear this news. The Amazon founder and aerospace entrepreneur is by far the largest customer for Europe's future Ariane 6 heavy-lift rocket. He booked a total of 18 launches in the spring. The rocket is intended to help Bezos build an Internet satellite network, as billionaire Elon Musk is currently doing with his own rockets and Starlink fleet. But the new Ariane 6 development is by no means going as planned.

The next postponement for the premiere flight was announced. The first flight is now scheduled to take place in the fourth quarter of 2023. Even this date is not yet certain. Numerous tests still have to be completed beforehand, said Josef Aschbacher, head of Europe's space agency ESA. By far not everything has been tested yet.

The rocket should have been in use long ago. The acknowledgment of the renewed delay comes at a time when the importance of space is growing and politicians are emphasizing the importance of Europe having its own heavy-duty rocket. The so-called autonomous access to space.

But now Europe is in danger of falling further behind in the global competition for satellite transport. The USA and in particular the billionaire Elon Musk with his space company SpaceX, which was only founded 20 years ago, are setting the pace.

Musk is about to launch the world's largest rocket (Starship), which is expected to carry a payload of up to 100 tons into low Earth orbit. After many delays, the new US heavy-duty rocket SLS could also take off in November for future manned flights to the moon.

China, Russia, India and Japan also have ambitious missile plans. In addition, new companies are entering the market worldwide, initially with even smaller rockets.

The former supremacy of the Ariane rocket as the world market leader for commercial satellites has long been lost. Elon Musk's SpaceX dominates the business. That became apparent years ago.

In 2014, the Europeans decided to build Ariane 6 for four billion euros. A huge sum compared to the reportedly only $ 400 million that SpaceX has invested in the development of the Falcon rocket, which is currently the most widely used rocket.

The Europeans had decided that the Ariane 6 should be at least cheaper and more powerful than the Ariane 5 model currently in use. Billions of taxpayers' money flowed into the development of the rocket under the direction of the Ariane Group with the shareholders Airbus and Safran. In addition, new launch facilities were built at the spaceport in French Guiana.

However, critics see the new Ariane 6 as technically outdated even before the first flight because it cannot be reused. Not even the payload fairing is used again. Everything falls into the sea except for the satellites deployed in space.

At SpaceX, on the other hand, the recycling idea is at the heart of the developments. Some SpaceX rocket stages have been in space 15 times before landing on platforms in the sea.

The new Ariane 6 was originally scheduled to take off for the first time on July 16, 2020. With the symbolic date, exactly 51 years after the start of America's lunar landing mission, the Europeans wanted to signal that they were at the forefront of the rocket builders' concert.

But there were always delays, also because of corona infections. In addition, cost increases are a problem. The initially announced goal of 50 percent lower costs per rocket is missed, it is probably only 40 percent. Ariane 6 continues to be more expensive than SpaceX rockets, which are attracting more and more customers.

SpaceX now launches a rocket every six days. The Ariane 5, which is about to be replaced, has only flown twice this year.

In order to utilize the upcoming Ariane 6 at all, all European scientific and military satellites are to be launched on this rocket. The large order announced by Jeff Bezos in the spring for 18 starts was therefore also referred to in the industry as a small rescue package. Allegedly, the first flights for Bezos should take place in 2024 – but this is now more than questionable.

In any case, there is little transparency about Ariane 6 development. For example about the costs and what the taxpayer should contribute to every start in the past and in the future. No details are given about the reasons for the renewed postponement of the start date. One reason could be the complex structures in Europe's space flight compared to SpaceX.

At the top is the space agency ESA. There are also national, industrial policy and military interests. France, with its nuclear missiles, wants to benefit indirectly from the development of new solid and liquid engines. The Ariane Group, as the general contractor for the new rocket, in turn has an interest in the utilization of its capacities.

There is still no precise launch plan for the new Ariane 6, should the premiere flight actually take place at the end of 2023. What should be avoided at all costs is a fiasco like the first flight of the current Ariane 5 in June 1996. At that time, the flight software was not sufficiently tested.

After 36 seconds of flight, the missile broke up and a self-destruct mechanism was activated. With Ariane 6, everything should be thoroughly tested, they say. But that can take time.

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