Airbus Safran Launchers

The roots of Airbus Safran Launchers are planted in the shared technological history of France and Germany which dates back to the earliest space programs, and is embodied today by the Ariane launcher. For more than half a century, Europe has been at the forefront of the field of civil launchers and holds the leading position on the world market for commercial launches to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO). Airbus Safran Launchers also plays a key supporting role for the French nuclear deterrent force, supplying the sea-to-ground strategic ballistic missiles. Since 1971, it has been involved in all the development phases of the oceanic component of the national deterrent force.
World leader

Man has always sought to push back the frontiers of space, with its infinite possibilities for innovation and exploration.

Demand for satellites has escalated massively in recent decades. Today, many hundreds of them are circling above us, and their numbers are only set to increase - as is the fundamental role that they play in the daily lives of each and every one of us: data exchange, communications, navigation, geolocalization, cyber security, weather-forecasting and climate-prediction, surveillance and monitoring of our planet. In this rapidly evolving sector, commercial and institutional customers alike are constantly looking to take maximum advantage from new technologies as quickly as possible, while exercising pressure on costs.

A nuclear deterrent force is core to France's defense and security strategy, and intrinsically linked to the civil space sector; in a volatile geo-strategic context, the importance of the ability of ballistic systems to adapt to emerging threats and provide an effective counterweight is immeasurable.

A 50-50 joint venture established by Airbus Group and Safran, Airbus Safran Launchers brings together all the expertise and assets of these two industry leaders in the fields of civil and military launch vehicles.

Backed by European governments and space agencies, supported by the entire industrial sector, Airbus Safran Launchers offers in a single entity all the capabilities, experience, resources and capacity for innovation necessary to instigate and drive forward the changes needed today and in the future.

Its combination of a unique technological and industrial heritage and the dynamism of a truly passionate workforce is what makes Airbus Safran Launchers what it is today - the world leader in access to space with big ambitions.

With agility embedded right across its business, Airbus Safran Launchers can offer its customers particularly innovative, competitive solutions, striving to boost European space industry to the highest level and guarantee independent access to space.
PRIME CONTRACTOR

For development and production of Ariane 5 and Ariane 6 launchers, and also for design/ R&T of future European launcher programs.
RESPONSIBLE

For the ballistic missile system of the French oceanic nuclear deterrent force: development, manufacture and operational maintenance services for the various components of the system (missiles, ground-based and submarine-launch systems and associated infrastructures).
INNOVATOR

Airbus Safran Launchers leverages the dual expertise and the industrial synergies of its civil and military activities to offer its customers a wide range of derived products and associated services.