i mean, that was complacency, wasn t it? you can call it complacency. actually, it has served us very well for. not now. not now, but for more than ten years, we had another rocket. we have, actually, three classes of rocket, as we call it. the one that is transporting heavier satellites into space, called the ariane 5 today. then we have the one in the lower segment, which is vega. and then we have the medium segment, which is now soyuz, which was soyuz, i should say, which was serving us well. but, at the time of the invasion of crimea in 2014, we already have made decisions to develop another rocket called ariane 6, which will fly very soon, some time next year, to replace soyuz and also the ariane 5 rocket. so, actually, the ariane 6 was already developed, and decisions were made in iii to foresee that this change is necessary.
the ariane 5 rocket. so, actually, the ariane 6 was already developed, and decisions were made in iii to foresee that this change is necessary. well, ariane 6 is still in development, but the sad truth is that some of your key programmes and missions for the next year or two have now been jeopardised and may well be entirely ruined because of the withdrawal of cooperation with russia. and i m thinking in particular of your ambitious plan to send a european rover vehicle to mars. that entire mission may not happen now. today, it s not decided what will happen or will be the future of that mission, this is true, because on february 24th, right afterwards, i called a meeting with my member states to decide what we do. and, as you say, stephen, we had to decide to suspend this cooperation with russia. let me just say that this is hurting us all.
and what you did in practical terms was year on year rely on russian rockets, the soyuz rocket programme, to take your astronauts and your equipment up into space. i mean, that was complacency, wasn t it? you can call it complacency. actually, it has served us very well for. not now. not now, but for more than ten years, we had another rocket. we have, actually, three classes of rocket, as we call it. the one that is transporting heavier satellites into space, called the ariane 5 today. then we have the one in the lower segment, which is vega. and then we have the medium segment, which is now soyuz, which was soyuz, i should say, which was serving us well. but, at the time of the invasion of crimea in 2014, we already have made decisions to develop another rocket called ariane 6, which will fly very soon, some time next year, to replace soyuz and also
the soyuz rocket programme, to take your astronauts and your equipment up into space. i mean, that was complacency, wasn t it? you can call it complacency. actually, it has served us very well for. not now. not now, but for more than ten years, we had another rocket. we have, actually, three classes of rocket, as we call it. the one that is transporting heavier satellites into space, called the ariane 5 today. then we have the one in the lower segment, which is vega. and then we have the medium segment, which is now soyuz, which was soyuz, i should say, which was serving us well. but, at the time of the invasion of crimea in 2014, we already have made decisions to develop another rocket called ariane 6, which will fly very soon, some time next year, to replace soyuz and also the ariane 5 rocket. so, actually, the ariane 6