14 DAY TRIAL // Evry-based Arianespace, the largest French aerospace company, is currently struggling to remain competitive on the launch services provider market. Its main competitor is now Hawthorne, California-based Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX), a company that provides much cheaper rockets and access to space.
The announcement was made on February 25 during a French Senate testimony by the former Arianespace Chief Executive Officer, Jean-Yves Le Gall. In mid-2013, when he stepped down from leading the company and assumed command of the French space agency (CNES), Arianespace was already behind SpaceX in terms of per-kilogram launch cost requirements.
SpaceX builds and operates its own rocket, the Falcon 9 medium-lift delivery system. ESA and Arianespace mostly rely on the larger Ariane 5 heavy-lift rocket for most launches. The European fleet also includes the medium-lift Soyuz, provided by the Russian Federal Space Agency (RosCosmos) and the small Vega 4 launcher.
Launching a large satellite aboard an Ariane 5 currently costs around $137 million (€100 million), while doing the same aboard a Falcon 9 rocket would set you back just over $60-70 million (€43-50 million). Le Gall told the French Senate last month that additional subsidies for Arianespace could reduce Ariane 5 launch costs to about $100 million (€72 million), Space News reports.