HELSINKI — Europe is on the brink of a watershed moment as the Ariane 6 launch vehicle prepares for its inaugural flight on Tuesday.
Ariane 6 is set to lift off from the Kourou launch site in French Guiana between 2:00 p.m.–6:00 p.m. Eastern (1800–2200 UTC) on July 9. The European Space Agency (ESA) is broadcasting 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 Vulcain 2.1 engine with liquid hydrogen and oxygen. This is an upgrade from the Vulcain Ariane 5 main engine.
The 62 can carry up to 10.3 tons into low Earth orbit, while the larger “64” with four solid boosters can lift up to 21.6 tons. However, the first flight will carry only a number of small satellites and experiments from space agencies, companies, research institutes, universities and young professionals.
The first launch follows years of delay. The launcher is designed to succeed the venerable and now-retired Ariane 5, keeping the cost down. The rocket was previously intended to fly for the first time in 2020.
Ariane 6’s first launch – given launcher delays, a backlog of 30 orders and a European approach to the space crisis – will be a high-pressure and consequential first flight for prime contractor ArianeGroup, the provider of launch service Arianespace, ESA and other interested parties.
“It is essential for Europe to have autonomous access to space again,” said Hermann Ludwig Moeller, director of the European Space Policy Institute. 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 operator missions, Moeller noted.
Ariane 6 already has 30 launches booked, 18 of which are to Amazon’s Kuiper constellation.
There is a sense of risk, with plans to increase Ariane 6 flights to nine per year as soon as possible depending on a successful flight.
However, test launches have a high failure rate. “Statistically, there is a 47% chance that the first flight will not succeed or happen exactly as planned,” Josef Aschbacher, director general of ESA, said in May, tempering expectations.
Moeller added that the operational launcher would benefit “space applications such as climate monitoring, improved weather forecasting, banking and time services, secure communications, 5G and the Internet, civil and economic security, including the protection of critical infrastructure in transportation, energy, digital and defense. applications.”
“Ariane 6 is essential and a prerequisite for the implementation of a wider European space policy and strategy.”
Asked how the spent Ariane 6 and its many delays have potentially cost the European space sector, Moeller said: “The main impact in our view is the fact that the focus on the launcher crisis has made it difficult to progress on other files and especially. on the accelerated use of space, at a time when other space powers and commercial ventures are doing just that, in a race.
“And it is not the Falcon 9 launcher that is most visible in the debate, but the Starlink communication constellation, known to every taxi driver. It is not too late for Europe to catch up and IRIS2 is a step in that direction. However, the window of opportunity is now and it will close.”
With the sudden gap between the retirement of Ariane 5 and Ariane 6, ESA needed to launch its Euclid space telescope on a Falcon 9 last year, followed by the EarthCARE satellite in May.
Notably, European weather satellite operator Eumetsat announced in late June that it has moved one of its geostationary weather satellites from an Ariane 6 to a Falcon 9. The move, made for complex but unexplained reasons, according to Eumetsat, surprised officials Europeans in space.
Another development, partly in response to its access to space crisis, is Europe looking to diversify its launch services. An ESA Council resolution on 5 July set the course for the ESA-developed Vega to be commercialized by prime contractor Avio.
The council also authorized the use of the French Guiana spaceport for four micro- and mini-launchers from European launch service providers Isar Aerospace, MaiaSpace, PLD Space and Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA).
“These decisions set the stage for more diverse European launch services in an increasingly competitive environment,” ESA said in a statement.
RFA, in a statement to SpaceNews, called for change. The company’s position is that, in the future, private industry should build the rockets, while ESA and the EU procure the service. “The development and operation of the Ariane 6 post launch service will be led by private industry,” RFA said. Meanwhile the firm noted Ariane 6 as “a major pan-European project” and was excited about the launch.
Moeller noted that Europe also needs to look beyond the debut launch. “Until July 10, the focus in Europe must shift beyond the launchers to the accelerated use of space, in all areas and for the benefit of the entire European economy, for the prosperity of its citizens, the competitiveness of its industries, as and for protecting global peace and inspiring future generations.”