The first launch of the new design Ariane 6 rocket is still four to five years away (planned first flight currently in 2020), but French government and industry officials said April 6th that the new rocket would beat arch-rival SpaceX on a price-per-kilo basis.

The bold statement came from Airbus Safran Launchers (ASL), the newly-established consortium which is building the rocket. ASL chief executive Alain Charmeau, at a press briefing, said that a cluster of delays, not least the wrapping up of the actual deal which establishes ASL, had set the project back a few months, but Charmeau remained confident that a 2020 debut launch would happen on time.

Patrick Bonguet, the projects programme chief, said Airbus 6 is maintaining its commitment of reducing today’s typical Ariane-5 cost-per-kilo by some 40 to 50 per cent.

It is a brave statement given that SpaceX and its founder Elon Musk is also predicting rapidly falling prices once Musk’s team perfects its ‘back to Earth’ recovery programming for its Falcon-9 system.

Other posts by Chris Forrester:

1. Intense launch schedule for SpaceX
2. TeleSUR comes to Europe
3. Naspers decision: Tencent down, Prosus up
4. Bank: SES/Intelsat merger worthwhile?
5. Bank: LBG Media rated Buy
6. Kuiper, OneWeb agree on orbital debris
7. SpaceX claims 5G interference from Dish Network
8. Musk shows no mercy
9. Intelsat looks to wrap bankruptcy claims

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