Editing Diamant (section)

===Successor and discontinuation===
While Diamant had proven to be a viable and reliable launcher, the sheer size of the American and Soviet space programmes far exceeded what would be realistically achievable not only by France but by any of the independent nations of western Europe.<ref name = "turn 8"/> As this realisation became prevalent, it was also recognised that cooperative efforts between nations and a new generation of international programmes would enable these nations to play a much greater and significant role in space exploration. Early collaborative programmes, such as the [[European Launcher Development Organisation]] (ELDO) and [[European Space Research Organisation]] (ESRO), bore mixed results but showed the promise of such endeavours, thus a greater emphasis was placed upon international efforts on the topic of space.<ref name = "turn 8">Turner 2008, p. 8.</ref>

As a consequence of Britain's withdrawal from participation in the ELDO, it was decided to replace the British-built [[Blue Streak (missile)|Blue Streak]], which comprised the first stage of the organisation's multinational launcher, known as [[Europa (rocket)|Europa]], with the French-built Diamant taking its place.<ref name=europa>{{cite encyclopedia |first=Mark |last=Wade |url=http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/europa.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020305192355/http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/europa.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=March 5, 2002 |title=Europa |encyclopedia= Encyclopedia Astronautica}}</ref> All work on the Europa programme was terminated only a few years later due to the high failure rate encountered. Meanwhile, Britain decided to focus its efforts on the indigenous [[Black Arrow]] launcher instead.

During 1974, the [[European Space Agency]] (ESA) was founded for this purpose; the ESA effectively enabled the competing and overlapping national space programmes to be succeeded by a single organised multinational framework with work shared between the member states instead.<ref name = "turn 8"/> Specifically, in 1976, work commenced on the new collaborative [[Ariane 1]] launcher, the first version of what would become the highly successful [[Ariane (rocket family)|Ariane family]]. The existence of the Ariane programme, a rival launcher to the earlier Diamant rocket, effectively replaced the demand for and the role of France's indigenous launcher, rendering it obsolete and redundant in comparison. France ultimately decided to discontinue further launches using Diamant in favour of the newer Ariane platform.<ref name = "turn 8"/>