Astrium, the world’s second ranking space company, has been awarded three new contracts by the European Space Agency (ESA).Running through to the end of 2014, the first two contracts cover the continued development of the Ariane 5 Midlife Evolution (A5ME) launcher and the sub-assemblies common to both it and Ariane 6. This study was approved by ESA in May 2013.

The third contract is for the start of development studies for the Ariane 6 launcher, based on the concept selected in July.