Arianespace in the context of "Commercialization of space"

The European Space Agency (ESA), pronounced 'ee-sah', is a 23-member international organisation devoted to space exploration. It has its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 2,547 people globally as of 2023. ESA was founded in 1975 in the context of European integration. Its 2025 annual budget was €7.7 billion.

The ESA human spaceflight programme includes participation in the International Space Station (ISS) and collaboration with NASA on the Artemis programme, especially manufacturing of the Orion spacecraft's European Service Module (ESM). ESA launches and operates uncrewed missions to the Moon, Mars, Jupiter, Venus, Mercury, the Sun, and various comets and asteroids. Other activities include space telescopes, Earth observation satellites, asteroid impact avoidance, telecommunication and navigation satellites, designing launch vehicles (e.g. Ariane 6 is operated through Arianespace with ESA sharing in the costs), and maintaining Europe's Spaceport (the Guiana Space Centre at Kourou, French Guiana), as well as space safety and commercialisation.

Ariane 6 is a European expendable launch system developed for the European Space Agency (ESA) and French Space Agency (CNES) and manufactured by a consortium of European companies, led by the prime contractor ArianeGroup. As part of the Ariane rocket family, it is operated by Arianespace, replacing the Ariane 5. The project's primary contributors were France (55.3%), Germany (21%) and Italy (7.6%), with the remaining work distributed among ten other participating countries.

This two-stage rocket utilizes liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen (hydrolox) engines. The first stage features an upgraded Vulcain engine from Ariane 5, while the second uses the Vinci engine, designed specifically for this rocket. The Ariane 62 variant uses two P120C solid rocket boosters, while Ariane 64 uses four. The P120C booster is shared with Europe's other launch vehicle, and is an improved version of the P80 used on the original Vega.

The Guiana Space Centre (French: Centre spatial guyanais; CSG), also called Europe's Spaceport, is a spaceport to the northwest of Kourou in French Guiana, an overseas region of France in South America. Kourou is located approximately 500 kilometres (310 mi; 270 nmi) north of the equator at a latitude of 5°. In operation since 1968, it is a suitable location for a spaceport because of its near equatorial location and open sea to the east and north.

At CSG, space launches are conducted by several European private companies and government agencies working together. The CSG land itself is managed by CNES, the French national space agency. The launch infrastructure built on the CSG land is owned by the European Space Agency. The private company Arianespace operates the launches including planning missions, handling customer relationships and overseeing the team at CSG that integrates and prepares vehicles for launch. The rockets themselves are designed and produced by other companies, ArianeGroup for the Ariane 6 and Avio for the Vega.

Private spaceflight is any spaceflight development that is not conducted by a government agency, such as NASA or ESA.

During the early decades of the Space Age, the government space agencies of the Soviet Union and United States pioneered space technology in collaboration with affiliated design bureaus in the USSR and private companies in the US. They entirely funded both the development of new spaceflight technologies and the operational costs of spaceflight. Following a similar model of space technology development, the European Space Agency was formed in 1975. Arianespace, born out of ESA's independent spaceflight efforts, became the world's first commercial launch service provider in the early 1980s. Subsequently, large defense contractors began to develop and operate space launch systems, which were derived from government rockets.

ArianeGroup (formerly Airbus Safran Launchers) is an aerospace company based in France. A joint venture between Airbus and Safran, the company was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in Issy-les-Moulineaux near Paris. It consists of three core groups: aerospace, defence, and security. ArianeGroup has developed its next-generation two-stage Ariane 6 launch vehicle, which succeeded the Ariane 5 rocket, that had more than 110 launches. The new vehicle offers two variants that will be capable of carrying between 10,350 and 21,650 kilograms. The first launch of Ariane 6 occurred on 9 July 2024.

If the company's task is to develop and manufacture the launch vehicles, Arianespace acts as the launch service provider for them. Meanwhile, another subsidiary, ArianeWorks, is tasked with developing next-generation technologies such as the reusable Themis rocket booster. ArianeGroup also notably manufactures France's M51 nuclear submarine-launched ballistic missile.

Ariane is a series of European civilian expendable launch vehicles for space launch use. The name comes from the French spelling of the mythological character Ariadne. France first proposed the Ariane project and it was officially agreed upon at the end of 1973 after discussions between France, Germany and the UK. The project was Western Europe's second attempt at developing its own launcher following the unsuccessful Europa project. The Ariane project was code-named L3S (the French abbreviation for third-generation substitution launcher).

The European Space Agency (ESA) charged Aérospatiale (whose former assets now form Airbus) with the development of all Ariane launchers and of the testing facilities, while Arianespace handled production, operations and marketing after its creation in 1980. Arianespace launches Ariane rockets from the Guiana Space Centre at Kourou in French Guiana. As a result of the merger in 2000 that founded Airbus, the new corporation's space branch and subsequently its subsidiary with Safran, ArianeGroup, took over the duties of the defunct Aérospatiale.