Space, this is how Avio detaches itself from France for the Vega launches
Italy, France and Germany agree on the launches of Ariane 6 and Vega C at the ESA summit in Seville. The agreement opens the door to the independent management of Vega C by the Italian company Avio in addition to the current agreements carried out by Arianespace.
Consensual separation between Paris and Rome on the marketing of Vega, the European light launcher designed and produced by the Italian Avio.
Italy, France and Germany have reached an agreement to support the future launches of the European Ariane 6 and Vega C launchers. This was announced in a press release from the Made in Italy Ministry of Business led by Adolfo Urso (Fratelli d'Italia).
In particular, the "countries have reached a decisive agreement to immediately unblock the launches of Ariane 6 and Vega-C. Regarding the latter, it opens up to the autonomous marketing of launches which can also be carried out directly by Avio, in collaboration with what the French company Arianespace already does today".
This is confirmed when the French newspaper La Tribune revealed about the divorce between Arianespace and Avio on the occasion of the Space Summit in Seville on 6 and 7 November . According to the French press, last year the then Draghi government had asked to take Vega out of Arianespace's orbit, in a letter addressed to ESA.
Arianespace is the company controlled by the Franco-German giant ArianeGroup that manages the European launchers Vega (produced by Avio, the Colleferro aerospace company led by Giulio Ranzo) and Ariane (made by Arianegroup). Therefore, France through Arianspace has an exclusivity to market Vega, at least until now.
The agreement represents "a turning point in Europe" and comes at a delicate moment for autonomous access to space and the common strategies of countries in the sector.
For the first time in decades, the Old Continent does not have a launcher to bring its satellites into orbit. In addition to the withdrawal of Ariane 5, Ariane 6 has suffered delays and the debut has been postponed to next year while Vega remained stuck on the launch pad following the failure of the first commercial flight of Vega C on December 20th.
All the details.
LAUNCHES OF ARIANE 6 AND VEGA C UNBLOCKED
At the ESA summit in November 2022, Italy had decided to allocate resources for 311 billion euros, placing itself as the agency's second largest contributor like France, affirming the strategic nature of the sector which has always represented a flagship of the industry national, recalls the Mimit note.
Following the ESA ministerial, last March Italy and France had already signed a new agreement to strengthen cooperation in space . French Minister Le Maire had underlined the importance of "guaranteeing the success of Ariane 6 and getting Vega C to fly again".
But European companies have recently faced setbacks with their space ambitions. However, today the Minister of Business and Made in Italy with responsibility for space and aerospace policies Adolfo Urso, the French Minister of Economy Bruno Le Maire and the German Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck signed, as part of the mid-term ministerial summit of the European Space Agency (ESA) underway in Seville, a trilateral declaration that outlines the program and strategies for the sector.
The document signed today by the three ministers indicates "a series of fundamental points for the relaunch of the space sector, resolving long-standing disputes on the availability of launches and related sites, finally laying the foundations for a new unitary phase in Europe and in the competitive context global” says Mimit. First of all, the three countries have reached a decisive agreement to immediately unblock the launches of Ariane 6 and Vega C.
INDEPENDENT MARKETING FOR VEGA WITH AVIO
Not only that, regarding Vega C, "it opens up to the autonomous marketing of launches which can also be carried out directly by Avio, in sharing with what the French company Arianespace already does today" communicates the department headed by Minister Urso.
“A turning point for the pitcher, on which Italy achieved an important, significant result” comments Mimit again.
ABOUT THE LAUNCH SITE IN FRENCH GUYANA
At the same time, with today's agreement, the three countries also agreed to expand "the availability for the launch of Vega launchers from the French site in Guyana".
Furthermore, the trilateral document defines a launch schedule until 2030, the year in which Europe aspires to achieve the first landing of a European astronaut on the Moon.
THE POSITION OF MINISTER URSO
“A positive picture is thus emerging for Italy, in a context of openness to European competition with new rules for the future of the sector” comments Mimit again.
“This agreement is an important turning point in Europe, all the more significant in light of new geopolitical events and which can pave the way for a broader convergence on defense industrial policy” commented Minister Adolfo Urso adding that “We strongly wanted to pursue this objective since the first days of the legislature, when in the first meeting with Le Maire and Habeck we identified an agreement in a politically innovative document, which showed our countries the path to follow together to direct the whole of Europe."
Today's agreement therefore also represents a leap in quality, which will have repercussions on other strategic sectors. A success of the trilateral format of which we are all fully aware"
STRENGTHENING THE ROME-PARIS-BERLIN AXIS
In fact, the ministry recalled that "today's agreement follows up and gives substance to the directions identified in the first trilateral meeting on space policies held during the ESA meeting in Paris on 22 November 2022, which inaugurated, already at the beginning of the legislature, the new three-way format and which continued with meetings on European industrial policy, in June in Berlin on the topic of critical raw materials and in Rome, last Monday, on innovation and artificial intelligence”.
The third meeting on the green economy will take place in January in France. A new approach which aims to strengthen the European Union through the synergy between the three largest industries on the continent, also to respond to ESA competition and the Chinese challenge, according to Mimit.
Finally, "This agreement will also be reflected in our new legislative system, as outlined in the link to the Maneuver to incentivize and support the national space industry, protagonist of European programs" concluded Minister Urso.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/spazio-ecco-come-avio-si-sgancia-dalla-francia-per-i-lanci-di-vega/ on Mon, 06 Nov 2023 15:24:11 +0000.