The European Space Agency on Wednesday kicked off development of Europe’s newest space rocket with the award of a €2.4 billion ($2.65 billion) contract to a joint venture of Airbus Group SE and Safran SA.

Ariane 6, the new large rocket, is intended to make Europe’s space launcher more competitive in the face of growing international competition, including from commercial operators such as entrepreneur Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technology Corp., known as SpaceX.

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