HELSINKI — Europe is on the brink of a crucial moment as the Ariane 6 launch vehicle prepares for its inaugural flight Tuesday.
The Ariane 6 is set to launch from the Kourou launch site in French Guiana between 2:00–6:00 p.m. Eastern (1800–2200 UTC) July 9. The European Space Agency (ESA) is streaming the launch live via ESAWebTV.
The inaugural Ariane 6 flight will feature the 56-meter-long ’62’ variant, equipped with two solid boosters. The main stage is powered by the liquid hydrogen and oxygen-fuelled Vulcain 2.1 engine. This is an upgrade from the Ariane 5 main Vulcain engine.
The 62 can carry up to 10.3 tons to low Earth orbit, while the larger “64” featuring four solid boosters can lift up to 21.6 tons. The first flight however will only carry a number of small satellites and experiments from space agencies, companies, research institutes, universities and young professionals.
The first launch follows years of delays. The launcher is designed to succeed the venerable and now-retired Ariane 5 while reducing cost. The rocket had earlier been targeted to fly for the first time in 2020.
Ariane 6’s first launch—given the launcher’s delays, a backlog of 30 orders, and a European access to space crisis—will be a high-pressure and consequential first flight, for prime contractor ArianeGroup, launch service provider Arianespace, ESA and other stakeholders.
“For Europe it is mission critical to again have an autonomous access to space,” Hermann Ludwig Moeller, director of the European Space Policy Institute, told SpaceNews.
This would guarantee the launch of its own institutional missions. This includes the EU Space Programme, EUMETSAT meteorological satellites, ESA missions, security and defense-related missions, and commercial missions of operators, Moeller noted.
Ariane 6 already has 30 launches booked, 18 of which are for Amazon’s Kuiper constellation.
There is a sense…
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