alt Hacker NewsFrance essentially did that too, in favour of the ESA (I think the French launcher may have had a couple launches, but certainly no more than ten).
France essentially did that too, in favour of the ESA (I think the French launcher may have had a couple launches, but certainly no more than ten).
France has its own agency, the CNES (though most research go through ESA nowaday), and had it for a long time.
Its launchers are still the best when it comes to reliability I believe, though not competitive on cost anymore since the advent of spaceX (Ariane6's first flight was in 2024 and its price per kilogram is just an order of magnitude worse than spaceX). Definitely missed a step.
Still, France has an active and ongoing space program since about 1970.