Editing Europa (rocket) (section)

===Rising costs and restructuring===
By April 1966, the project's estimated costs had increased to £150 million from an initial estimate of £70 million. By this point, hopes amongst several of the participants were not high that Europa would be suitable for the envisioned task; the Italians wanted to abandon the ELDO and instead participate in a single European space organisation that would not be as nationally divided as the ELDO. The first launch had been originally planned for November 1966; however, the first two-stage launch occurred in August 1967, while the full three stages (Europa 1) performed its first combined launch in November 1968.

During the mid-1960s, Britain had been contributing 40 per cent of the programme's costs. In early June 1966, the British government ([[Fred Mulley]]) decided it could not afford the cost of Europa and sought to leave the ELDO organisation – one of the few European organisations by which point it had become a lead player. Britain's contribution was reduced to 27 per cent. This was also at a time when satellite technology was on the verge of changing the world. However, the soon-to-be-common [[geosynchronous satellite]]s necessitated being positioned at an altitude of 22,000 miles (35 400&nbsp;km) above Earth, which was far beyond the performance of Europa 1, being capable of launching satellites to a {{convert|125|mi|km}} altitude.

In November 1968, a European Space Conference held in Bonn decided on a proposal to merge the ELDO with the [[ESRO]], forming a pan-European space authority by early 1970; known as the [[European Space Agency]] (ESA), this organisation would not be formed until 1975. Britain was lukewarm to the idea and did not believe that Europe could launch satellites economically. By 1970, the French launch base in [[French Guiana]] had cost £45 million, and in that year France became the most important partner in the project, then planning to build two-thirds of the rocket as well as owning the launch site. Although only on paper, Britain's involvement in the project has been much reduced, after being largely responsible (with an Australian launch site) for getting the entire project going in the first place. However, all of the launchers, to the very end of the programme, were completely dependent on the British rocket used for the first stage.

By 1970, the project was under a perceived economic threat from America's offer to fly satellites for foreign powers on a reimbursable basis. That agreement had been signed between ESRO and NASA on 30 December 1966 and by 1970 it was becoming clear that the advantage in having a national launch vehicle was insufficient to justify the cost. In 1972, NASA approved development of the reusable [[Space Shuttle]], which at that time was largely perceived to eventually offer greater savings over the launching of satellites using an expendable system. These hopes the Shuttle delivering lower costs would ultimately prove to be hollow. By 1971, over £250 million had been spent on the Europa programme; the Europa 2 itself cost over £4 million.

On 27 April 1973, Europa was abandoned.<ref name="hill 13 14">Hill 2001, pp. 13-14.</ref> On 21 September 1973, the legal agreement for the L3S, which later became known as the [[Ariane 1]], was signed. Under this agreement, the Europa III was formally cancelled, while the L3S would be developed as a multinational project. From the onset, this new launcher was to be developed for the purpose of sending [[Commercial use of space#Satellites and equipment|commercial satellites]] into [[geosynchronous orbit]], unlike many other competing launchers, which had been typically developed for other purposes and subsequently adapted, such as [[ballistic missile]]s.<ref name = "harvey 161 166">Harvey 2003, pp. 161, 166.</ref>