Bruno Le Maire, the former French finance minister, said in 2021 that the Ariane 6 was a “bad strategic choice.” More recently, in October of last year, the head of ESA said the continent’s space industry must “catch up” with international competitors like SpaceX and develop a reusable launcher “relatively fast.”
In its submission to ESA’s BEST! initiative, ArianeGroup proposes replacing the Ariane 6 rocket’s solid-fueled side boosters with new liquid-fueled boosters. The boosters would be developed by MaiaSpace, a French subsidiary of ArianeGroup working on its own partially reusable small satellite launcher. MaiaSpace and ArianeGroup would convert the Maia rocket’s methane-fueled booster for use on the Ariane 6.
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