PARIS: The European Space Agency is considering increasing the launch rate of its Ariane 6 and Vega-C rockets in the coming years to overcome a potential bottleneck in satellite deployments, the agency’s chief said on Wednesday.
Director General Josef Aschbacher told reporters that a decision would be needed soon if forecasts of a sharp rise in demand, expected to peak around 2030, prove accurate.
Operator Arianespace’s most recent projection is for nine or 10 launches of Ariane 6 rockets a year from 2027.
Based on Europe’s own missions, as well as possible further interest from Amazon and other commercial activity, there is more demand than planned capacity, Aschbacher said at an event organised by the AJPAE aerospace media association.Amazon has already commissioned 18 launches. “Of course the question is, can we satisfy all these launches? That’s exactly the assessment we are doing right now,” Aschbacher said, adding that no decisions had been made so far.“We are already advanced in some of these estimates, but it’s also clear that if we want to satisfy launch requirements in 2030 ... we need to make a decision pretty soon to build up the capacities needed.”
Arianespace, a subsidiary of Airbus-Safran rocket venture ArianeGroup, declined to comment ahead of a regular news briefing planned for September 7.
The 23-nation ESA is exploring the feasibility of launching humans into space on European rockets rather than hitching rides on US vehicles, though the decision would be a political one.
Aschbacher also gave the clearest signal yet that ESA is prepared to use its weight as Europe’s largest buyer to ensure satellite competition remains amid plans for a major merger.
