Merely days after the European Space Agency’s Director of Space Transportation dismissed competition to its Ariane 6 from SpaceX‘s Starship, the European satellite launcher has lost one of its key contracts to SpaceX’s workhorse Falcon 9. What Happened: TheEuropean Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) on Friday said that its MTG-S1 sounding satellite will now be launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in 2025. “This decision was driven by exceptional circumstances,” EUMETSAT Director-General Phil Evans said in a statement. “It does not compromise our standard …