Arianespace has another failure.
I predicted years ago that Ariane 6 would be obsolete before it flew. I suspect that its executives are starting to figure that out now, and are going to have to stop denigrating, and instead start imitating, SpaceX.
6 thoughts on “Vega C”
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What is the deal with an all-solid satellite launcher?
If Elon Musk and SpaceX make the solid-fuel boosters unnecessary that will be at least one major accomplishment he has accomplished.
Replace the solids with two Falcon Heavy structures, 4 boosters and 2 lengthened cores. The boosters could RTLS and the cores could push the SLS core most of the way to orbit. There’s no reason the engine bay could have a HIAD like reentry package, so all you’d expend would be the orange tank. Add a much bigger upper stage and you’d have something viable. Fat chance.
I said it was obsolete the day it was announced. It is evident that ESA realizes that, but they can’t just run away from it (as they should) and start all-out projects for reusables tech (as they should) because ESA’s biggest programs are fundamentally not about being competitive, but about distributing high-tech welfare to European aerospace.
At their current pace of reusables research ESA can never catch up with multiple private entities with plausible and (in the case of SpaceX) proven capabilities in the field…they’re in the rearview mirror and fading.
ESA needs to leapfrog SpaceX going to something better than Starship. Again, fat chance.
I remember reading an article a few years ago where an ESA official dismissed reusability because it would reduce the number of jobs needed to build rockets. Ariane 6, like SLS, is just another jobs program.