15/06/2022 (Agence Europe) – The Director General of the European Space Agency (ESA), Josef Aschbacher, confirmed that Ariane 6, Europe’s future heavy-lift launcher, will be launched “sometime next year”, in an interview with the UK’s national radio station BBC on Monday 13 June. The Austrian did not give a precise reason for the delay. The launch was until recently scheduled for the end of 2022, after a two-year delay due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Recently, the European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, expressed annoyance at the delay in the inaugural launch of the future launcher at the ‘Competitiveness’ Council, stating that any further delay would be unacceptable to the European Commission (see EUROPE 12969/4). (PH)