Eumetsat moves weather satellite from Ariane 6 to Falcon 9

WASHINGTON — European weather satellite operator Eumetsat has moved the next launch of a weather satellite from an Ariane 6 to a Falcon 9, a move that surprised and irritated European space officials.

In a statement late on June 28, Eumetsat said the Meteosat Third Generation-Sounder 1 (MTG-S1) geostationary weather satellite will now launch on a Falcon 9 in 2025. The spacecraft was scheduled to launch in early 2025 on an Ariane 6.

“This decision was prompted by extraordinary circumstances,” Phil Evans, Eumetsat’s chief executive, said in a statement, but did not elaborate on those circumstances. “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 Generation line of geostationary orbit weather satellites, following the launch of MTG-I1 on one of the last Ariane 5 rockets in December 2022. MTG-S1 is the first to carry a sounding instrument that can provide vertical profiles of temperature and water vapor to improve weather forecasting.

Eumetsat noted in its statement that MTG-S1 will “bring about a revolution for weather forecasting and climate monitoring” and suggested it moved the launch to the Falcon 9 to ensure it would launch on schedule.

“Its launch will ensure that national weather services can take advantage of new and more accurate data to protect lives, property and infrastructure,” the statement said. “As such, EUMETSAT Member States decided to award a launch service contract to SpaceX for the launch of the Meteosat Third Generation-Sounder 1 (MTG-S1) satellite on a Falcon 9 rocket in 2025.

The agency did not respond to questions about the change in the filing before releasing the statement. The departure change was first reported on June 27 by the French newspaper Le Monde.

The change appears to have caught the leadership of European space organizations by surprise, as they publicly expressed their shock and disappointment at Eumetsat’s decision not to use Ariane 6 less than two weeks before that rocket’s scheduled debut.

“It is clear that today is a very disappointing day for the European space effort,” Philippe Baptiste, head of the French space agency CNES, said in a social media post. He called the decision “a pretty brutal change” given the timing.

“I am looking forward to understanding what reasons could have led Eumetsat to such a decision, at a time when all the main European space countries as well as the European Commission are calling for the launch of European satellites on European launchers!” he wrote.

He called on the European Commission to implement some form of “buy European” regulation that would require European government missions to launch European missiles. “This illustrates, once again, the burning need for strong European coordination in space.”

Josef Aschbacher, director general of the European Space Agency, also called Eumetsat’s decision “surprising” in a June 29 social media post. “It’s hard to fathom, especially since Ariane 6 is on track for its inaugural flight on July 9, with all processes nominal.”

He noted that Eumetsat’s decision will not affect the increase in Ariane 6 launches, assuming the inaugural launch in July is a success. A second launch, which would be a commercial launch managed by Arianespace, is planned before the end of the year.

Arianespace has an order book of 30 Ariane 6 launches, Caroline Arnoux, head of Ariane 6 programs at Arianespace, said at an ESA briefing on 25 June. This includes 18 launches of Project Kuiper satellites for Amazon, along with other commercial and government customers.

She said Arianespace projected six Ariane 6 launches in 2025, increasing to eight in 2026 and 10 in 2027. The vehicle’s maximum flight rate is projected to be 9 to 12 launches per year.

Lucía Linares, head of space transport strategy and institutional launches at ESA, emphasized at that conference the importance of government customers for Ariane 6. “First and foremost, we have developed Ariane 6 – designed, developed and now coming to launch inaugural – in order to serve European institutional missions,” she said. “This is the main reason why the public sector is funding this launcher and why we have guaranteed access to space.”

Eumetsat, however, is not the first European institutional customer to choose the Falcon 9 for launches, especially during the “launcher crisis” that has limited European access to space. ESA launched its Euclid space telescope on a Falcon 9 a year ago, followed in May by the launch of EarthCARE, a joint Earth science mission with the Japanese space agency JAXA. Another Falcon 9 will launch ESA’s Hera asteroid mission in October.

The European Commission also selected the Falcon 9 to launch the Galileo navigation satellites, with a Falcon 9 launching a pair of satellites in April and another pair scheduled to launch later this year.

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