Days After ESA Director Dismissed Competition From SpaceX's Starship, Ariane 6 Loses Customer To Elon Musk-Owned Company's Falcon 9

Merely days after the European Space Agency’s Director of Space Transportation dismissed competition to its Ariane 6 from SpaceX‘s Starship, the European satellite launcher has lost one of its key contracts to SpaceX’s workhorse Falcon 9.

What Happened: The European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) on Friday said that its MTG-S1 sounding satellite will now be launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in 2025.

"This decision was driven by exceptional circumstances," EUMETSAT Director-General Phil Evans said in a statement.

"It does not compromise our standard policy of supporting European partners, and we look forward to a successful SpaceX launch for this masterpiece of European technology."

The weather satellite operator was previously planning to launch the Meteosat Third Generation-Sounder 1 (MTG-S1) satellite on the third launch of Ariane 6 early next year. Ariane 6 is scheduled to have its first-ever launch, after several delays, early next month.

Why It Matters: Earlier this week, European Space Agency (ESA) director of space transportation Toni Tolker-Nielsen said in an interview with SpaceNews that SpaceX’s Starship will neither be a game changer nor a real competitor to Ariane 6.

While SpaceX's Starship is designed to fly people to the moon and Mars, ESA's Ariane 6 is to launch a four or five-ton satellite, the executive said.

"Starship will not eradicate Ariane 6 at all," Tolker-Nielsen said while adding that things might change in the future.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9, meanwhile has been launching the company’s satellites as well as those of other customers to space over years. SpaceX completed 50 launches of the Falcon 9 in the first five months of 2024 alone. Ariane 6, in comparison, is expected to have a maximum of only 10 fights a year until 2029, Tolker-Nielsen said.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has previously said the company is aiming for 12 launches per month in 2024, totaling 144 launches. In comparison, SpaceX only completed 96 launches in 2023, not including two Starship test flights. The company’s launch numbers have been steadily increasing, with 26 launches in 2020, 31 in 2021, and 61 in 2022.

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