N° 39–2016: Ariane 6 on track, contracts towards full development to be signed tomorrow
8 November 2016
After a programmatic review finalised in September and following the positive outcome of today’s meeting of the Industrial Policy Committee, ESA is now in a position to confirm the full development of Ariane 6 and Vega C.
Tomorrow, the riders to the contracts already awarded in August 2015 to the industrial contractor Airbus Safran Launchers (ASL) for the launcher development and to the French space agency CNES for its launch complex, will be signed at ESA headquarters, 8-10 Rue Mario Nikis in Paris at 11:00.
Media representatives are invited to attend the ceremony as of 10:45.
The contracts will be signed by Jan Dietrich Woerner, Director General of ESA, Alain Charmeau, CEO/President of ASL and Jean-Yves Le Gall, President of CNES. The signatures will take place in the presence of Thierry Mandon, French Secretary of State for Research and Higher Education.
About the European Space Agency
The European Space Agency (ESA) provides Europe’s gateway to space.
ESA is an intergovernmental organisation, created in 1975, with the mission to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space delivers benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
ESA has 22 Member States: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, of which 20 are Member States of the EU.
ESA has established formal cooperation with seven other Member States of the EU. Canada takes part in some ESA programmes under a Cooperation Agreement.
By coordinating the financial and intellectual resources of its members, ESA can undertake programmes and activities far beyond the scope of any single European country. It is working in particular with the EU on implementing the Galileo and Copernicus programmes.
ESA develops the launchers, spacecraft and ground facilities needed to keep Europe at the forefront of global space activities.
Today, it develops and launches satellites for Earth observation, navigation, telecommunications and astronomy, sends probes to the far reaches of the Solar System and cooperates in the human exploration of space.
Learn more about ESA at www.esa.int
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