The Ariane 62 VA262 flight successfully made it to orbit but was unable to make its final burn due to an auxiliary propulsion unit failure that disabled the second stage’s restartable Vinci engine. Despite this failure to achieve a test objective, the next Ariane 6 flight is scheduled for no earlier than this December.

Europe is finally starting to regain its independent access to space, but the downtime between Ariane 5’s retirement and Ariane 6’s first flight caused ESA to book several missions on Falcon 9 as the rocket was the only way the missions could achieve a timely launch. The Vega-C and Ariane 6 rockets also have no reusability features and their costs are not likely to approach Falcon 9 levels, making them less competitive in the world space launch marketplace.

Europe’s space sector has started to respond to SpaceX’s domination of the world space launch market, although progress has been slow and uneven. Last month, ESA selected four companies — ArianeGroup (Arianespace’s parent company), Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA), Isar Aerospace, and The Exploration Company — to help develop reusable launch vehicle technology.