ArianeGroup CEO to step down

Andre-Hubert Roussel will step down as CEO of ArianeGroup, the joint venture between Safran and Airbus plagued by failed rocket launches, French newspaper La Tribune reported on Thursday.

A spokesperson for ArianeGroup declined to comment. Amid wider European delays and unsuccessful satellites launches, ArianeGroup’s subsidiary Arianespace’s rocket mission Vega-C, carrying Airbus Defence & Space satellites, failed in December around two and a half minutes into flight.

This was the third failure out of eight launches on the Vega platform by Arianespace and the European Space Agency (ESA), and the latest setback for Europe’s ambitions to compete with the U.S., Russia and China in space. An announcement on Roussel’s departure should be made early next week, La Tribune said. Reuters