ArianeGroup Opens New Subsidiary, MaiaSpace, to Create Reusable Rocket

ArianeGroup has opened a new subsidiary, named MaiaSpace, to create a small-lift partially reusable rocket named Maia. This is part of the ArianeNEXT program to create a series of reusable rockets to replace the current Arianespace launchers. The program is planned to have small-lift (Maia), medium-lift, heavy-lift, and super heavy lift reusable rockets. For each of them, the first stage will be re-used, and will land on a drone ship or landing pad (similar to SpaceX). The ArianeNext program was started because of Europe's fears that SpaceX was getting ahead of them. They said that they considered making a reusable rocket in 2012/2013, when SpaceX was flying their Falcon 9 first stage prototypes (Grasshopper and F9R Dev1). Their ultimate decision then was to wait and to make the Ariane 6 rocket for the time being. (Ariane 6 is going to be complete soon and will have its first launch this year. It will replace Ariane 5.) The first launch of Maia is planned to happen in 2026, with the rest of the ArianeNEXT rockets coming in the late 2020's and early 2030's. All of the ArianeNEXT rockets will be powered by the Prometheus engine that is currently being developed. Prototypes are now being built and designed to do suborbital flight tests and ground tests of parts of the ArianeNEXT rockets, including Prometheus. The first hop vehicle, named Themis (which will have three Prometheus engines) will have its first test flight in 2024.