TECH - Days After ESA Director Dismissed Competition From SpaceX's Starship Ariane 6 Loses Customer To Elon Musk-Owned Company's Falcon 9 | Benzinga
Merely days after the European Space Agency’s Director of Space Transportation dismissed competition to its Ariane 6 from SpaceX‘s Starship, the European satellite launcher has lost one of its key contracts to SpaceX’s workhorse Falcon 9.
What Happened: The European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) on Friday said that its MTG-S1 sounding satellite will now be launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in 2025.
"This decision was driven by exceptional circumstances," EUMETSAT Director-General Phil Evans said in a statement.
"It does not compromise our standard policy of supporting European partners, and we look forward to a successful SpaceX launch for this masterpiece of European technology."
The weather satellite operator was previously ...