Heritage

ArianeGroup was founded in January 2015, when the two world-leading companies Airbus and Safran decided to merge their civil and defence space launcher activities. Announced at the end of 2014, this led to an equally-owned joint venture, initially designated Airbus Safran Launchers (ASL). This move followed the decision taken by the European Space Agency (ESA) member states at the Ministerial Council Meeting in Luxembourg on 2 December of that year to develop a new European heavy launcher to replace Ariane 5. ASL started out with a small team of around 450 people tasked with preparing the development of the new Ariane 6 launcher.

On 1 July 2016, the new company became fully operational, integrating the activities of the two group’s existing entities. It became an industrial group itself, with over 8,000 employees, design offices and production sites in France and Germany. Several space equipment and service subsidiaries also joined the Group, including Sodern, Pyroalliance and Nuclétudes. In November 2016, ASL acquired nearly 35% of the capital of Arianespace from the French Space Agency CNES (Centre National d’Études Spatiales). The launch services company thus became a subsidiary of ASL, which holds 75% of the shares. On 1 July 2017, ASL changed its name to ArianeGroup and unveiled its new brand identity to mark the completion of its industrial integration.

ArianeGroup’s roots are embedded in the history of Europe’s space industry. Its prestigious predecessors were the bedrock of the Airbus and Safran groups. One of the ancestors of Airbus was SEREB (Société d’Étude et de Réalisation d’Engins Balistiques), founded in 1959 at the start of the French space programme. In 1971, it was integrated into Aérospatiale, and then Aérospatiale-Matra Lanceurs Stratégiques et Spatiaux. The company became EADS Launch Vehicles in 2000, then EADS Space Transportation and later EADS Astrium in 2006, and included the activities of Matra Marconi Space, the space division of DaimlerChrysler Aerospace and ERNO Raketentechnik.

The origins of Safran go back to the Société Européenne de Propulsion (SEP), founded in 1969 from the merger of Société d’Etude de la Propulsion par Réaction (SEPR), created in May 1944, with the spacecraft division of Société Nationale d’Étude et de Construction de Moteurs d’Aviation (Snecma). In 1971, SEP was augmented by the industrial operations of Laboratoire de Recherches Balistiques et Aérodynamiques (LRBA). In 1997, SEP itself was fully integrated into Snecma, which became Snecma Group in 2001, and then into the Safran group following the 2005 merger with Sagem. Herakles, founded in 2012, combined SEP’s solid propulsion with energetic materials from Société Nationale des Poudres et Explosifs (SNPE).

From the inaugural launch of the Diamant rocket in 1965, which orbited France’s first satellite, Asterix 1, to the first Ariane rocket flight in 1979 and onto the final launch of Ariane 5 in 2023 and the Ariane 6 programme, ArianeGroup embodies the continuity of one of the greatest space adventures of our time. Our history is full of remarkable innovations that have taken space technologies to new levels again and again.
Civil and military duality is a fundamental part this adventure. The first French ballistic missiles, with both land and ocean components, entered service in 1971, just two years before the start of the Ariane programme. Since the 1960s, the entities from which ArianeGroup stems today have developed, commissioned and operationally maintained the French strategic ballistic missiles, a crucial factor for credible deterrence. Their knowledge and expertise have made a decisive contribution to the Ariane programme.

From the very first version Ariane 1 to Ariane 6 today, the Ariane launcher has always been synonymous with independence, innovation and evolution. Ariane 1’s inaugural launch in 1979 marked the start of sovereign access to space for Europe. With Ariane 2 and 3 came greater flexibility of use and payload capacities. The inaugural flight of Ariane 3 launched the very first French telecommunications satellite, Telecom 1, thanks to the addition of solid-propellant boosters. In 1988, Ariane 4 marked a new step forward in versatility, with the possibility of combining two or four solid- and liquid-propellant boosters. The launcher became the new world benchmark in terms of reliability, with an impressive 97.4% success rate. Ariane 5 pushed performance, reliability and precision to unprecedented levels, finally bowing out in 2023 after an impressive 27 years of service and 117 launches. Going forward, Ariane 6 will give Europe a medium and heavy launcher with unrivalled versatility, performance and scalability.