With focus on Red Planet Mars, European Space Agency to proceed with Ariane 6 rocket

European Space Agency has its eyes on the Red Planet Mars and research ministers of ESA have approved the development of a new rocket Ariane 6 for Europe in a special council meeting in Luxembourg. Ariane 6 will be a successor for the Ariane 5, which was successful but is now facing stiff competition on the price front.
In the opinion of politicians, the industry will find the new vehicle cheaper to construct and to operate.
In the meeting in Luxembourg, they also agreed to the funding for the space station and a rover to go to Mars with the ExoMars rover planned to be sent to Mars in 2018 - its mission: to search for signs of past or present life. The ESA nations agreed to contribute 5.924bn euros to cater to the number of programs over the next few years.
The decision was the result of hard bargaining as Europe's two big space powers, France and Germany, came together to push Ariane 6 forward. France always intended to put up most of the money, but it needed German support financially and programmatically.
Incidentally, the Ariane 5 has been in operation since the mid-1990s and has come to dominate the market for putting up big commercial satellites but obsolescence is catching up and it is now coming under threat from competitor services that are offering lower prices. If this continues, the position of Ariane 5 would erode in the latter half of this decade.
Therefore there is a need to go in for another version that would involve modern day technologies and Ariane 6 could fulfill that role. This vehicle would employ more modern methods of production and a streamlined assembly to try to reduce unit costs. In addition, since its modular design can be tailored to a wide range of satellite and mission types, it should prove economical in the long run due to several applications.