Ariane 6, a new European rocket to reduce costs and compete with SpaceX

by time news

2023-06-08 17:00:51

The inaugural flight schedule for the European rocket Ariane 6 is to be unveiled on Thursday June 8 during a press briefing in Les Mureaux, in the Yvelines.

This rocket, 62 meters high and 5.4 meters in diameter, is to succeed Ariane 5, which will make its last flight on June 16, 27 years after its first take-off. Ariane 6 will place satellites in low orbit (between 160 and 1,000 km), geostationary (36,000 km) or heliosynchronous (1,680 km).

This new rocket exists in two versions: Ariane 64, equipped with four boosters, which can place up to 12 tonnes in geostationary orbit and 20 tonnes in low Earth orbit. Ariane 62, equipped with two boosters, can place 4.5 tons in geostationary and 7 tons in heliosynchronous orbit.

SpaceX competition

Ariane 62 will be used to carry scientific and positioning satellites, while Ariane 64 will carry telecommunications satellites. Depending on the version, Ariane 6 weighs between 530 and 860 tonnes and it will take off from the Kourou Space Center in French Guiana.

The construction of this new rocket involves more than 550 European companies, including Airbus and Safran. It was decided because of the high manufacturing costs of its predecessor, Ariane 5, and the threat of new competitors, in particular SpaceX and its partially reusable rocket, Falcon 9.

The EU is launching this new program in 2012. The use of an engine similar to that of the Vega-C, a light launcher which failed in December, should make it possible to make economies of scale. In 2020, the development cost was estimated at 3.8 billion euros.

Still no reusable rocket

While the first stage of Ariane 6 has similar characteristics to that of Ariane 5, the upper level is equipped with a Vinci rocket engine that can be turned off and on again, a first for this family of launchers.

Ariane 6 should have been launched in 2020 but it has accumulated delays, in particular due to technical difficulties and the health crisis. This has led to Europe’s dependence on SpaceX, the company of controversial billionaire Elon Musk. He had ironically called on Europe to build Ariane 6 for “resist him”.

Space X multiplies successful rocket launches. The Euclid and Hera probes will notably be launched by Falcon 9s. The European Space Agency has already launched the development of the successor to Ariane 6, Ariane Next, which could, like Falcon 9, have a first stage reusable.

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