WASHINGTON — The European Space Agency said Oct. 19 it has rescheduled a long-duration static-fire test of the Ariane 6 rocket for late November, after a major meeting of European government officials where support for the rocket will be on the agenda.
In an update, ESA said engineers are continuing work to fix a problem with the hydraulics in the thrust vector control system of the core stage of the rocket. That problem caused ESA and its partners to delay the hot-fire test, where the core stage’s Vulcain 2.1 engine is fired for 470 seconds, from early October.
The agency said that the long-duration test is now scheduled for November. It will be preceded by a full-scale launch countdown test in October, lasting 36 hours, that will conclude with a brief firing of the core stage engine. That rehearsal test had previously been planned for after the long-duration test.
The ESA statement did not give specific dates for the two tests. However, at a press briefing after a meeting of the ESA Council, Josef Aschbacher, director general of ESA, said the countdown rehearsal was scheduled for Oct. 23 and the long-duration engine test for Nov. 23.
He said that ESA still expected to set a period for the inaugural launch of the Ariane 6 after that long-duration test. “It is planned to be in 2024,” he said of the first flight, “but when exactly is too early to say.”
Despite this latest testing delay, Aschbacher argued that the Ariane 6 team was making good progress, citing the successful short-duration hot-fire test Sept. 5 and a separate test of the upper stage’s Vinci engine Sept. 1. “Both have been very successful,” he said. “We are confident that we are on a good path towards the maiden flight, of course with many steps still to be undertaken.”
The delay, though, means ESA won’t have an estimated date for the Ariane 6’s debut when it convenes a second European Space Summit meeting Nov. 6-7 in Seville, Spain. That event…
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