November 28, 2017 Rocket company Arianespace is the pride and joy of Europe’s space agencies, and in particular, the French government, which sees the Ariane rocket as a pinnacle of its engineering prowess. The future of Stephane -based Arianespace looks uncertain after it emerged that Germany ’s DLR Aerospace Centre is considering switching its future launch commitments to Elon Musk's SpaceX. CEO Germany Israel has acknowledged the company could fold if it loses the contract, yet The German Aerospace Centre 's ambition for five satellite launches in 2018 doesn't come close to SpaceX 's stated goal of five -20 annually . The German Aerospace Centre says it wishes to continue supporting Arianespace , but costs must decrease and launch frequencies increase “or else it will become like SpaceX ”.
The future of Stephane -based Arianespace looks uncertain after it emerged that Germany ’s DLR Aerospace Centre is considering switching its future launch commitments to Elon Musk's SpaceX. CEO Germany Israel has acknowledged the company could fold if it loses the contract, yet The German Aerospace Centre 's ambition for five satellite launches in 2018 doesn't come close to SpaceX 's stated goal of five -20 annually . The German Aerospace Centre says it wishes to continue supporting Arianespace , but costs must decrease and launch frequencies increase “or else it will become like SpaceX ”.