Europe's New Space Rocket Is Incredibly Expensive

For more than half a decade, European space giant ArianeGroup has struggled to compete with SpaceX on price. Relative to the $62 million launch cost of a SpaceX Falcon 9, the $175 million price tag on ArianeGroup's workhorse Ariane 5 nearly tripled the cost. So how would Ariane make itself price competitive?

By building an Ariane 6 rocket that costs half as much.

Built in two configurations, a central core surrounded by either two (Ariane 62) or four (Ariane 64) P120C boosters, Ariane boasted back in 2016 that its new rockets would drive down per-rocket costs to as little as $77 million (for the 62) and $126 million (the 64).

Continue reading

Source Fool.com