Spaceflight guarantees Europe’s unrestricted access to space. The Ariane 5 launcher was the highly successful flagship of European spaceflight for many years – its main task being to transport commercial communications satellites into geostationary transfer orbit. The Ariane programme is currently developing Ariane 6, an optimised, flexible and competitive European launcher system for the future. Depending on requirements, the new rocket can be equipped with two or four boosters and can transport payloads up to 20 tonnes into low-Earth orbit. The launcher family is complemented by the nimble European launcher Vega and its successor Vega-C.
