Ariane 6 arrives at launch pad, ‘the culmination of ten years of work’

SPACE – Slowly but surely a new colossus rose. The first copy of Ariane 6, the newest in European space, was launched this Wednesday, April 24, from the launch pad at the Kourou base in Guyana, where HuffPost. What we call verticalization is an important point that all project managers present at the base are monitoring, as you can see in our video at the top of the article.

“It is especially strong. The culmination of ten years of work”, admits to HuffPost a few tens of meters from the launch vehicle, Karin Levo, director of space transport at CNES (national center for space research). The core of the rocket is installed first, and in the following days it is joined by boosters (two reactors filled with gunpowder that accompany it to break away from Earth’s gravity), then the cap and its load a few weeks later. The European launcher will be ready for its first launch in early summer… Which won’t happen anytime soon.

28 flights are already planned

As a result of the cumulative impact of Covid and various technical glitches, the launch of the launch vehicle was actually four years behind the original planned first launch date. However, Ariane 6 embodies a careful modernization, not so much a revolution as a simplification, which allows the construction cost to be reduced by 40% compared to its predecessor.

But those changes, including building a new range on difficult terrain, took longer than expected, and of course the pandemic got in the way. The resulting launch vehicle docked at Kourou arrives a year after Ariane 5’s last launch, and in a context where SpaceX is winning a huge share of commercial launches. “Ariane 6 is scheduled to launch just under 10 years after the launch of the program. […] this is quite common,” says Frank Huiban, director of programs at Arianegroup.

However: Ariane 6 will need to show that the European space offer is still competitive and maintain the legacy of success of its predecessor Ariane 5. The task is difficult, but not impossible. Because the missile already has a combat reserve: the order book for the launcher is full, extremely full.

“We already have 28 missions planned, although we haven’t flown yet.”– said François Denet, director of the Ariane 6 program, at HuffPost. Institutional orders, the Kuiper constellation under the auspices of Amazon, the launcher is already on schedule with an initial rate of one launch per month before accelerating the pace… If it launches from Earth in a few weeks without problems.

Also look at HuffPost: