Airbus Group and Safran Group on Dec. 3 said that their joint venture for launch activities will begin operations on Jan. 1, 2015, working with the existing Ariane 5 launchers and on a new family of launchers for Europe.
The announcement by the two European aerospace and defense companies followed approval on Dec. 2 by a European Space Agency conference of the development and production of the new Ariane 6 space launcher.
“With this joint venture, industry has made a strong statement and has assumed leadership to foster Europe’s autonomous access to space,” Tom Enders, CEO of Airbus Group, said in a statement. “Yesterday’s ESA Ministerial Conference will be remembered as the one that decided upon a new Ariane launcher family for the next decades and opened a new chapter in the way Europe conducts and manages its space ambitions.”
Airbus and Safran in June announced that they had signed a memorandum of understanding for their 50-50 joint venture to propose a new family of space launch vehicles that would combine Airbus’ expertise in launch vehicles with Safran’s propulsion systems. At the time Airbus said that the goals of the joint venture, now officially called
Airbus Safran Launchers, include accelerated a midlife upgrade to the Ariane 5 with an improved upper stage and developing the Ariane 6 launcher.
With the Dec. 3 announcement the first phase of the transaction is underway and is expected to close on Dec. 31. In the second phase, all launcher-related activities of both companies will be integrated into the Paris-based joint venture, which will have 450 employees.
Both companies said that their proposal includes an agreement for the transfer to their joint venture of the shares held in space launch company Arianespace by the French space agency CNES.
Enders said more still needs to be done to boost the competitiveness of Europe in the space business.
“If we want to successfully counter growing international competition and prevent the risk of Europe’s space sector from being marginalized, a lot more has to be done,” Enders said. “Therefore, we hope that this ESA Ministerial Conference serves as a catalyst to transform the way institutional space agencies operate and interface with industry in the future.”