France wants to equip Europe with reusable mini-launchers like SpaceX

During his speech, Bruno Le Maire said his desire to “catch up” the delay taken by ArianeGroup compared to the company ofElon musk, SpaceX, a pioneer in the field of reuse. Among the announcements to be remembered are those aimed at encouraging the development of French mini and micro-launchers and the reusable mini-launcher project entrusted to ArianeGroup.

This mini-launcher, rather partially reusable, could fly from 2026. It should complete the range of launchers Arianespace and would compete with SpaceX and new players are betting on micro-launchers like Rocketlab Where Virgin orbit and his airborne launcher. This small launcher will target the market for launching small and very small satellites as well as that, with a bright future, for the launch of constellation. That said, this type of small reusable launcher, as long as it is quickly set up and refurbished, could be of interest to the military for occasional use and during an emergency situation.

A reusable mini-launcher in competition with the Ariane 6 and Vega “dispensers”?

It should be noted that before this announcement the strategy of ArianeGroup and Arianespace was rather to bet on adaptations of Vega and D’Ariane 6 by endowing them with dispensers (distributors) capable of carrying several dozen satellites, rather than developing a mini-launcher to complete the range of launchers operated from the Guyanese Space Center.

For the moment, no information has been revealed on the architecture or on the performance of this small launcher, which to be operational in such a short time (2026) will use technologies already mastered and mature. Only the main motor and therefore reusable is to be developed. Perhaps a reduced version of Prometheus or based on this engine? To be continued. As for the economic viability of these future micro-launchers, this cannot be achieved without a strong European preference for satellite launching. Which is not quite the case today.