On Wednesday 21 July, the German Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy, Peter Altmaier, and the French Minister for the Economy, Finance and Recovery, Bruno Le Maire, announced the conclusion of an agreement on space policy and European launchers.
The agreement is the result of a request made by French President, Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, in August 2020, at the Fort de Brégançon and represents 12 months of negotiation, the two ministers said.
Mr Le Maire stressed at a press conference that this agreement will guarantee the commercial operation of Ariane 6. For his part, Mr Altmaier emphasised the role of micro launchers. In all cases, both the French and the Germans emphasised the European preference, a subject which is particularly important to the European space sector (see EUROPE 12765/12).
However, they said that they did not want to give further details before presenting the content of the agreement to the other European partners, in particular the Italian partner, whose role in the space landscape, especially for launchers, is particularly important. Mr Altmaier indicated that he would meet his Italian counterpart on the margins of the G20 on 23 July.
This announcement follows approval by the European Space Agency (ESA) in mid-July for the development of a new reignitable stage for the future Ariane 6 launcher (see EUROPE 12762/27).
ESA gives green light to VEGA-E. The European Space Agency (ESA) has given the green light, with a contract worth €118.8 million, to the future small launcher VEGA-E, which is expected to take over from VEGA-C (scheduled to make its maiden launch in 2022) after 2025.
The upper stage of VEGA-E will have multiple reignition capability and will use large-scale 3D technology. It will also be cleaner than VEGA-C.
In the framework of the European Launcher Alliance, the European Commission held a first meeting with the space industry (see EUROPE 12756/21). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)