WASHINGTON — The successful second flight of Europe’s Ariane 6 has become an opportunity for European officials to highlight the need for “strategic autonomy” in space given its changing relationship with the United States.
An Ariane 6 successfully launched the CSO-3 reconnaissance satellite for the French military March 6 on the second flight of the long-delayed rocket and the first mission operated by Arianespace. It was the first of five Ariane 6 launches Arianespace plans to conduct this year.
The official launch webcast featured, after the successful deployment of the satellite, congratulatory remarks by Philippe Baptiste, former head of the French space agency CNES who is currently minister for higher education and research in the French government. But the remarks quickly diverged from the launch itself into geopolitics.
“Ariane 6, carrying the CSO-3 satellite, is proof of our space sovereignty,” he said, according to English subtitles to his remarks in French. “We are facing a new global reality in the space sector. The return of Donald Trump to the White House, with Elon Musk at his side, already has significant consequences.”
That included, he said, uncertainties about future cooperation between French agencies and NASA and NOAA, and “when emblematic programs like the ISS are being unilaterally questioned by Elon Musk?” That is a reference to posts by Musk calling for deorbiting the ISS as soon as 2027.
“If we want to maintain our independence, ensure our security and preserve our sovereignty, we must equip ourselves with the means for strategic autonomy,” Baptiste said, which includes space. “For this sovereignty, we must not yield to the temptation of preferring SpaceX or another competitor that may seem trendier, more reliable or cheaper.”
During a panel discussion at the Satellite 2025 conference March 10, David Cavaillolès, the new chief executive of Arianespace, said geopolitical tensions since the start of the Trump administration had provided a clear example of the need for Europe to have its own means of accessing space, something it lacked for a time given delays in the introduction of the Ariane 6 and problems with the smaller Vega C rocket.
“Autonomous access to space is one of our missions for decades, so this is not new,” he said. “What is new is that, in the past sometimes, it sounded a bit theoretical and so on. And now, I think, people really understand what it means to have sovereign domestic capabilities to deliver end-to-end missions.”
“We should see an increase an institutional demand,” he added. While ESA and the European Commission have used Ariane for their missions when that vehicle was available, some national governments have turned to SpaceX in particular for launching their satellites rather than use Ariane.
Demand from institutional customers has been traditionally weaker in Europe than in the United States, requiring Arianespace to rely more on commercial business. Cavaillolès said Arianespace is trying to maintain a mix of one-third institutional and two-thirds commercial missions.
“Today, we see things are changing,” he said, with potentially more institutional demand in Europe, including the IRIS² constellation. “We see huge room for growth in this market.”
He reiterated Arianespace’s desire to get the Ariane 6 up to full capacity, about 10 launches a year, as soon as possible. That is required to meet the demands of its largest commercial customer, Amazon’s Project Kuiper constellation. However, Cavaillolès said he expects stronger institutional demand to emerge in the years to come.
“Clearly, today we see that the market, especially the institutional market, is growing faster than the supply,” he said. “Our challenge is to ramp up successfully as quick as possible.”
He left the door open for increasing the Ariane 6 launch rate beyond 10 per year, a move that would require investments in both the supply chain for the vehicle as well as launch facilities in French Guiana.
“We see that the market is growing. We see that it might grow even faster with all the changes in the world today,” he said, which could make it worthwhile to make the investments needed for a higher flight rate. “For sure it will require investment. I’m quite convinced that we can deliver a stronger return on investment.”
