Aerospace company MT Aerospace (Augsburg / Germany; www.mt-aerospace.de) is to build booster casings for the "Ariane 6" rocket at its location in Augsburg. The rocket motors, which are made of carbon fibre-reinforced plastic (CRP), were developed by MT Aerospace together with the Centre for Lightweight Production Technology (ZLP) of the German Aerospace Centre (DLR, Cologne / Germany; www.dlr.de). Prototypes of the booster casing successfully passed the necessary tests and they will replace the steel casings previously used in the "Ariane 5".

Production of the casings, which are 6 m long and have a diameter of 3.5 m, is due to begin shortly at MT Aerospace in Augsburg. The size of the investment for the new production facility was not disclosed. Augsburg will then be the second production site for CRP boosters, in addition to the plant operated by Italian competitor Avio (Colleferro; www.avio.com). Both suppliers will produce half of the planned 35 boosters per year, although full production is unlikely to be reached until 2023. Ariane 6's maiden flight is scheduled for 2020.

Since summer 2013, MT Aerospace has been working together with the ZLP – on behalf of the European Space Agency (ESA) – on the development of a manufacturing technology for carbon fibre processing. The result is an infusion process that is more economical than the wet-winding processes used to date. Product development for CRP boosters has been running in parallel at MT Aerospace since 2015.