Europe never had its own spacecraft for European astronauts to launch into space, so they always had to fly on American or Soviet, and then Russian, vehicles.

Arianespace wants to change that: at the International Astronautical Congress in Paris, the European company presented a concept called SUSIE, a reusable vehicle that will be able to carry out cargo flights as well as crewed flights in the near future.

However, this is not the first European attempt of this kind: HERMES was supposed to be a vehicle that would go into orbit using the Ariane 5 rocket, but the plans were abandoned in the early 90s. This means that to date, all European astronauts who have flown into space have done so aboard the Soyuz capsule, the US space shuttle or, more recently, the Dragon capsule.

Given the current delicate international context, European industry could benefit from some independence in manned orbital flights, so things are already starting to move in that direction. Arianespace, the European company responsible for the creation and operation of the Ariane 5, Vega and Ariane 6 launch vehicles, presented yesterday at the International Astronautical Congress in Paris the concept of a reusable orbital vehicle called SUSIE (Smart Upper Stage for Innovative Exploration).

SUSIE seems to be inspired by the Starship project of the American company SpaceX, but it is much smaller: 12 meters long and 5 meters in diameter, it would fit 5 astronauts on board, and the vehicle would also have a cargo option. It has no wings (it doesn’t need them) and no windows, at least in the images released by Arianespace.

Unlike the space shuttles or the former Hermes project, SUSIE landed propulsively, that is, with the help of its on-board engines, on a ramp, not necessarily on a runway. This choice makes the vehicle safer because any start attempt can be canceled in an emergency and any start attempt can be interrupted and started again.

SUSIE will be launched by an Ariane 6 rocket, but it wouldn’t surprise anyone if any rocket powerful enough could have the new European capsule as an upper stage.

The SUSIE capsule will still use an auxiliary launch stage (which will not be reusable), but perhaps the design can evolve so that the capsule is independent of a specific manufacturer or launch vehicle operator. There is also the possibility of docking with future space stations (since SUSIE is unlikely to fly before 2030, when the International Space Station is scheduled to depart).

It remains to be seen how much SUSIE will be a project that will be brought to completion. A few years ago, Arianespace also promised that part of the engine of the future Ariane 6 rocket would be detached after launch and returned to the launch pad (!) to be reused (project Adeline), but at least in the first iterations of the Ariane 6 rocket, this has not been implemented.

However, given the geopolitical context and the fact that the European Space Agency is preparing to launch next year the Space Rider (a small unmanned reusable vehicle that will be launched by the Vega-C rocket), it is possible that in the coming years SUSIE will become the first European vehicle to will take astronauts into low Earth orbit.