Ariane 5's design is intended to accommodate continuous upgrades to guarantee Europe's independent access to space. To this end, 2 evolution programmes, Ariane 5 Evolution and Ariane 5 Plus, launched in 1995 and 1998, developed new variants of the launcher with increased lift capacity.

These evolutions are aimed at boosting performance for launches into geostationary transfer orbit. This performance improvement is achieved by optimizing the lower stage composite equipped with a new, more powerful Vulcain 2 engine, a higher propellant mass in the EAP solid booster stages and a lighter internal payload bearing structure for dual launches.

New upper stages have been developed to enable Ariane 5 to adapt to a diverse range of payloads, especially for orbiting heavier telecommunications satellites. The launcher’s generic upper stage thus has been replaced with a cryogenic upper stage offering increased performance.

The Ariane 5 Evolution series also includes the Ariane 5 ES variant, which has an EPS storable propellant upper stage (derived from the upper stage of the generic Ariane 5) capable of restarting several times after ballistic flight phases. This variant successfully launched the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) on 9 March 2008, a near-20-tonne spacecraft designed to resupply the International Space Station (ISS).

To optimize the Ariane 5 organization, accompanying projects were approved in 1995. The Ariane 5 Infrastructure project started in 1996.
Its initial goal is to ensure the operational continuity of the European launch system during the Ariane 4 and 5 transitional periods. Since 2002, it has also made upgrades at the Kourou launch base.

ARTA encompasses a range of activities including equipment testing, evaluations and maintenance of test facilities. Until 2007, CNES had technical and financial oversight responsibility for this ESA programme.

Currently Europe’s workhorse launch vehicle, Ariane 5 ECA’s performance will nevertheless need to be upgraded in response to evolving payload demands, to keep it aligned with market requirements and to ensure a continued independent launch capability.

Meeting in November 2008, the ESA Ministerial Council decided to start work on an enhanced version of Ariane 5 dubbed ME (for mid-life evolution), to increase the launcher’s performance and, most of all, to enable it to launch more complex missions with a reignitable upper stage featuring the new Vinci engine. This variant is scheduled to enter service around 2017.

Beyond that date, a new launch system is envisioned for the 2025 timeframe. This would be a reliable, single-launch system offering lower operating costs.

Looking further ahead, new generations of launch vehicles are being studied that would use new modes of propulsion—solar-thermal, electric and pulse-detonation technologies, for example—in particular for upper stages.

Future evolutions will be driven by decisions on whether to pursue human or robotic space exploration, an issue that is now gaining increasing attention. Depending on mission objectives, launch vehicles will have to be rethought or enhanced.