Europe appears to be stepping up to compete with the U.S.'s space programs, as the European Union (EU) is expected to approve the use of new ariane rockets for space missions.
The EU is scheduled to make its decision at a meeting in Luxembourg early next week, and officials in Europe and the U.S. say there is a good chance that the Union will grant approval for the low-cost rockets to keep up with Space Exploration Technologies, according to The Wall Street Journal. If approval is granted, the rockets will be used by French company Arianespace.
The goal is to give the European space industry the chance to cut launch prices and improve manufacturing sites at the same time. Officials involved in discussions say details about cost-cutting and cross-border work sharing are still being worked out, and Arianespace CEO Stephane Israel said the project could generate greater support for future launches.
"The ministry will take decisions on the development of a family of future launchers" that will be able to compete "with what exists on the market we see today and that can also adapt rapidly to the market that is evolving day by day," a spokesman for the European Space Agency (ESA) said.
The new rockets are expected to cost between five and six billion dollars to build, Engadget reported.
SpaceX doesn't seem concerned with the ESA's ambitions, with CEO Elon Musk saying Europe's current Ariane 5 rockets have "no chance" of outdoing his space projects.
Israel said in an interview that it's not just SpaceX that Arianespace will have to worry about if approval is granted next week, as the company could face competition from China, India, and Japan as well, The Wall Street Journal reported.
People familiar with the situation said France would pay close to 50 percent of total development costs, Germany would pay 22 percent and Italy would pay around 12 percent. Other countries have agreed to pay smaller portions.
If the EU decides to give the go-ahead next week, the Ariane 6 rockets could launch close to the end of the decade.
