Airbus Chief Defends Springing 11th-hour Ariane 6 Design on ESA

摘要

The head of Airbus' space division on July 1 said his company was forced to come up with an Ariane 6 rocket design that competed with the version approved by the European and French space agencies because the agency version ultimately would have decimated Europe's rocket industry. Testifying before the French Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defense and Armed Forces, Francois Auque said the solid-fuel-dominated Ariane 6 design that the European Space Agency and the French space agency, CNES, approved in July 2013 would have attracted mainly European government customers-a market whose size would mean reducing Europe's rocket design and production industry by two-thirds.