The Minister of the Economy concretizes the commitments made by Emmanuel Macron during the presentation of his France 2030 program, where 1.5 billion euros will be devoted to space.
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Do everything to make up for the delayed by Europeans against the American Spacex in the spatial, whether reusable rockets or satellite constellations. On Monday, December 6, the Minister of the Economy, Bruno the Mayor, announced that Aigranegroup was going to develop a reusable minilanter. This rocket “must be operational in 2026,” said the Minister of the Economy by presenting the project called Maïa Space. It thus concretizes the commitments made by Emmanuel Macron during the presentation in October of its France 2030 program where 1.5 billion euros will be devoted to space.
The future launcher can embark satellites weighing between 500 kilos and one tonne to place them between 200 and 2,000 kilometers from the earth, the low orbit having become one of the privileged places for telecommunications satellites or Observation, not to mention constellations to provide broadband internet. The rocket will be manufactured in Vernon, in the Eure, which will create a hundred additional jobs and to largely offset the transfer to Germany’s integration of the Vinci engines.
This is an ambitious bet, since Maïa will have to be realized in less than four years. Certainly, the Prometheus engine that equips it is already well advanced, just like the recoverable stage Themis, but the calendar is very tight. The stakes are of size against ELON Musk, which dominates and sets the tone on the space market with its Falcon 9 reusable rocket and its StarLink satellite constellation.
“Catch up a bad strategic choice”
“We will catch up a bad strategic choice ten years ago so that France and Europe finally have a reusable launcher,” said Bruno the mayor, adding being “convinced that this approach is complementary to Ariane 6 “. One way to remember that the dispute between France and Germany, the two main contributors of this project (56% for Paris and 22% for Berlin), which broke out this year was definitely completed.
“We stopped at what Europe was committing: the division, rivalry and, in the merits, the weakening of all European space actors, to bring together Our strengths, make a division of work and skills that will be more effective, said the minister of the economy. This puts us in order to be able to compete with [the actors] Americans and soon Chinese. “Each partner country will prefer Future European rocket for its so-called institutional launches (military, scientists) to American launchers. The first flight of the successor of Ariane 5 is planned in 2022.
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