Europe’s weather satellite operator has cancelled plans to use the European rocket Ariane 6 less than two weeks before its first launch, opting to go with US company SpaceX instead, French newspaper Le Monde reports.
This latest setback to European space efforts comes after four years of delays to the launch of Ariane 6, which is finally scheduled to make its debut on 9 July.
The European Meteorological Satellite Uses Organisation (EUMETSAT) could not be immediately reached when contacted by AFP on Friday, while Arianespace, the French company that developed and operates the Ariane 6 rocket, also did not comment.
EUMETSAT’s executive committee asked the board of directors representing the organisation’s 30 member countries to launch the MTG-S1 weather satellite on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, Le Monde reports.
This would mean cancelling the contract that UMETSAT signed with Arianespace four years ago.
The MTG-S1 satellite was planned to be the third launch via an Ariane 6 rocket, scheduled for early next year.
Le Monde’s report did not explain why UMETSAT abandoned a European rocket and opted for US billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
Philippe Baptiste, CEO of France’s CNES space agency, said it was “quite a drastic change, because the flight was taking place so soon.”
“Frankly, today is a very disappointing day for European space efforts,” he wrote in a LinkedIn post.
“I can’t wait to understand what reasons led EUMETSAT to take such a decision, at a time when all major European space countries as well as the European Commission are calling for European satellites to be launched on European launchers!
“How far will we Europeans go in our ignorance?”
Baptiste called on the European Commission “to take the necessary steps so that all European institutional satellites can be launched on European launchers, small and large.”
The much-anticipated maiden flight of Ariane 6 comes at a difficult time for European space efforts.
Years of delays in the Ariane 6, failures with the lightweight Vega-C launcher and Russia’s recall of its Soyuz rockets have left Europe with no independent way to send its missions into space.
Before the latest failure, the Ariane 6 rocket had an order book of 30 missions, and was scheduled to launch nine times per year.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket — which is reusable unlike the Ariane 6 — plans 144 launches this year alone.
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