SUSIE

Smart Upper Stage for Innovative Exploration

Mission Profile

SUSIE (Smart Upper Stage for Innovative Exploration) is an ArianeGroup concept for a reusable crewed upper stage that would be integrated with Ariane 6, enabling it to carry up to five crew members to low Earth orbit or serve as a cargo return vehicle. Unveiled in 2022, SUSIE would be recoverable, performing an autonomous reentry and landing like a small lifting-body capsule after deploying its payload. The concept aims to give Europe an independent crewed space access capability using the existing Ariane 6 launch vehicle without requiring an entirely new rocket development program. SUSIE represents Europe's most detailed publicly presented concept for an independent crewed orbital vehicle since the cancellation of the Hermes spaceplane in 1992.