Arianespace
Part of ArianeGroup since 2016
Arianespace is a Launch Vehicles company founded in 1980 and based in Évry-Courcouronnes, France. It has been part of ArianeGroup since 2016.
Arianespace was founded on March 26, 1980, and is headquartered in Évry-Courcouronnes, near Paris. It is a subsidiary of ArianeGroup, the Airbus and Safran joint venture that builds Ariane 6, which owns all of its capital; ArianeGroup's predecessor, Airbus Safran Launchers, took a 74% stake by buying out the French space agency CNES at the end of 2016. Arianespace earns revenue by selling launch services and running launch operations at the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, where ESA owns the infrastructure and CNES manages the site. It operates the Ariane 62 and Ariane 64 versions of Ariane 6, which debuted on July 9, 2024; commercial sales of Vega C moved to Avio, and Soyuz and Ariane 5 sales ended. David Cavaillolès, a former French government space-policy adviser, became CEO in January 2025, succeeding Stéphane Israël.
Arianespace flies Europe's institutional missions, such as the MTG-I2 weather satellite, launched by Ariane 6 to geostationary orbit in August 2026, and sells commercial launches against SpaceX. Ariane 64 debuted on Feb. 12, 2026, with 32 Amazon Leo satellites, and on Sept. 10, 2026, Amazon raised its Ariane 64 order from 18 to 24 launches through 2031. The fourth Amazon flight of 2026, VA271, is set for Nov. 23 at the earliest as the 10th Ariane 6 flight. Eutelsat booked two Ariane 64 launches to renew OneWeb.
At a glance
Total raised
Undisclosed
Headcount
201-500
Headquarters
Évry-Courcouronnes
FranceFounded
1980
Status
Subsidiary
Subsector
Space Tech, ranked
Top 25 Space Tech companies →Funding history
Total raised
—
Rounds tracked
0
No dated funding rounds on file. This company is privately held and may be raising or operating on undisclosed capital.