Ariane Next

Ariane Next is the working name for a future European launch vehicle that is meant to succeed Ariane 6 in the 2030s. Its defining idea is partial reuse: the architecture under study follows the pattern popularised by the Falcon 9, with a first stage that separates from the upper stage and returns to land vertically on Earth. The stated goal is to halve the cost of a launch compared with Ariane 6. Officials of the French space agency CNES and of ArianeGroup began discussing the concept publicly under this name in 2017, and system studies were published in 2019 and 2020. The first stage is planned to use several methane and liquid oxygen engines descended from the Prometheus engine, with a single engine on the second stage, and three layouts are being evaluated: a plain two-stage version, a version with two small liquid boosters, and a version with three first stages joined together. The vehicle does not exist yet. Its enabling technologies are being matured by the Themis reusable first-stage demonstrator, the Callisto landing demonstrator and the Prometheus engine programme.