WASHINGTON – EU climate satellite operator Eumetsat has moved the base of a climate satellite from Ariane 6 to Falcon 9, a move that has surprised and disappointed officials in the EU region.
In a comment on June 28, Eumetsat said the Meteosat third Presen-Sounder 1 (MTG-S1) geostationary climate satellite will now be based on Falcon 9 in 2025. The spacecraft was planned to be deployed as early as 2025. Ariane 6.
“This decision was driven by exceptional circumstances,” Eumetsat director general Phil Evans said in a comment, though he did not elaborate on those matters. “This does not compromise our standard policy of supporting European partners, and we look forward to a successful SpaceX launch of this masterpiece of European technology.”
The spacecraft is the second in the Meteosat Third Presen series of geostationary orbit climate satellites, which will launch MTG-I1 on the final Ariane 5 rocket in December 2022. MTG-S1 is the first to carry a sounder instrument that provides vertical profiles of temperature and H2O vapor to improve climate predictions.
Eumetsat noted in its commentary that MTG-S1 “will bring a revolution to weather forecasting and climate monitoring” and directed that the foundation be transferred to the Falcon 9 to secure it on a timetable.
“Its launch will ensure that national weather services can benefit from new and more accurate data to protect lives, properties and infrastructure,” it said. “Thus, the EUMETSAT Member States decided to award a launch services contract to SpaceX for the launch of the Meteosat Third Generation-Sounder 1 (MTG-S1) satellite on a Falcon 9 rocket in 2025.”
The company did not respond to questions regarding the change in submission basis before issuing the comment. The foundation exchange was first reported on June 27 via French newspaper le monde,
The change appears to have taken the management of the EU’s regional organizations by surprise, as they publicly expressed their shock at Eumetsat’s decision to downgrade Ariane 6 less than two weeks before that rocket’s scheduled launch. And expressed unhappiness.
“Clearly, today is a very disappointing day for European space efforts,” Philippe Baptiste, head of French regional company CNES, said in a social media post. He described the decision as “quite a brutal change” considering the timing.
“I am eagerly waiting to understand what reasons Eumetsat might have taken such a decision, at a time when all major European space countries as well as the European Commission are calling for European satellites to be launched on European launchers !” He has written.
He called on the EU Commission to implement a method of “Buy European” legislation that would require EU executive missions to be based on EU rockets. “This, once again, shows the strong need for stronger European coordination on space.”
Joseph Eschbacher, overall director of the EU range company, also called Eumetsat’s choice “surprising”. Social media post of June 29, “It’s hard to understand, especially as Ariane 6 is well on track for its July 9 inaugural flight, with everything nominally moving forward.”
He said the selection of Eumetsat will now not affect the ramp-up of the Ariane 6 launch, believing that the inaugural foundation in July is a fortuitous one. A 2D foundation, which could be a commercial foundation controlled by Arianespace, is planned before the end of the generation.
Caroline Arnoux, head of Ariane 6 technologies at Arianespace, said at the June 25 ESA briefing that Arianespace has a line of 30 Ariane 6 launches. This alternative comes with 18 launches of Venture Kuiper satellites for business and executive consumers as well as Amazon.
He said Arianespace envisions six Ariane 6 launches in 2025, expanding to 8 in 2026 and 10 in 2027. The highest gliding rate of automobiles is estimated to be nine to twelve launches in one generation.
Lucia Linares, Head of Regional Transport Technology and Institutional Launch at ESA, stressed the importance of government customers for Ariane 6. “First and foremost, we have developed Ariane 6 – from design, development and now coming to inaugural launch – to serve European institutional missions,” she said. “That’s the main reason the public sector is funding this launcher and why we have guaranteed access to space.”
Eumetsat, however, is not the first European institutional buyer to choose the Falcon 9 for launch, particularly during the “launcher crisis” that has restricted the EU’s access to the region. ESA introduced its Euclid Territory Telescope on Falcon 9 a generation ago, which was adopted in May through the establishment of EarthCare, a joint Earth science venture with Eastern Region company JAXA. The second Falcon 9 will launch ESA’s Hera Asteroid Project in October.
The EU Commission also chose the Falcon 9 for the installation of Galileo navigation satellites, with one Falcon 9 launching a pair of satellites in April and another pair to be installed later this generation.
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