CNES sets 2028 target for reusable heavy-lift engine hot-fire test
CNES · ArianeGroup
CNES president François Jacq says a subscale ASTRE engine prototype will get its first hot-fire test in 2028.
what happened
CNES president François Jacq disclosed in written answers to the French National Assembly's Economic Affairs Committee, ahead of an April 8, 2026 hearing on his reappointment, that a subscale prototype of a reusable full-flow staged-combustion rocket engine will undergo its first hot-fire test in 2028, per European Spaceflight. The engine, developed under CNES's Advanced Staged-combustion Technologies for Reusable Engines (ASTRE) project with lead contractor ArianeGroup, is designed to be more than twice as powerful as the Vulcain 2.1 used on Ariane 6. Jacq said the goal is to give Europe the ability to develop a super-heavy launch vehicle "comparable to Starship or New Glenn," cautioning that "it will take more than a decade to develop such an engine and the associated test stand."
why it matters
A subscale test in 2028 is an early step, not a committed vehicle program, but it is CNES's first public timeline for the propulsion technology any future European super-heavy reusable launcher would need, giving manufacturers and payload customers planning a decade out a rough development horizon for Ariane 6's eventual successor.
for who
European launch-vehicle manufacturers and payload planners
signal-to-noise
quick facts
- Companies
- CNES, ArianeGroup
- Category
- launch
- Impact
- notable
- SNR
- 3 / 5
- Event date
- 2026-08-05
- Published
- 2026-08-06 05:40 UTC