Giulio Ranzo on the Politics of Ariane 6

Peter B. de Selding of SpaceNews, during a great interview with Avio CEO Giulio Ranzo, asked about the split production lines for the solid boosters of Ariane 6 and how that would affect its cost:

These are political-level decisions, not industrial. If Ariane 6 was mine, I would be doing it all in one place. But Ariane 6 is a European program that has the participation of many countries. We need to take that into account.

The entire interview is worth reading, but Ranzo keeps coming back to this main point.

Lately when I’ve been talking about political and financial tradeoffs made to sustain programs, I’ve been focusing on NASA’s exploration program, but the same things are true of Ariane 6. To cut costs to extremely competitive levels—which is the goal of the new launch vehicle—it’s necessary to optimize the production and operations. But because it’s a political program at heart, some tradeoffs are needed in order to make it a reality.

The key to the long-term success of Ariane 6 is the ability to course correct on the way to its first flight and beyond. If the split production lines are beginning to become a major issue in terms of cost or timeline, the decision makers need to be able to adjust the plan quickly to stay on target. If they don’t have that agility, they won’t be able to compete long-term with SpaceX, Blue Origin, and other commercial players. It will catch up to them eventually.

The biggest benefit private companies have over government programs is the ability to address issues quickly and decisively. Any government program looking to compete in the market in the long-term needs to be able to match that decisiveness.