2024-07-03 21:28:00
The new Ariane 6 launch vehicle is about to make its first flight. This will be about Europe’s role in space – and above all, independence. This is what you should know.
Europe had to wait ten years for it. Now the new Ariane 6 launch vehicle is finally set to fly into space. For Europe, this means nothing less than its own access to space – at least for satellites.
When Ariane 6 completes its maiden flight next Tuesday, the continent will leave the serious crisis in its launch vehicle sector behind it. That is at least the promise of the new rocket, which is far from being able to keep up with all its competitors commercially.
Almost exactly a year ago, the Ariane 5, the predecessor of the Ariane 6, took off into space for the last time. Since then, Europe has not been able to launch a single satellite into space on its own. After the failed commercial launch of the Vega C at the end of 2022, the rocket designed for smaller satellites also remained on the ground.
The Soyuz rocket was also no longer available as a result of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. The European Space Agency (ESA) relied partly on Elon Musk’s US company SpaceX.
It is now important to have a successful first flight of the new Ariane, which will take off from the European spaceport in Kourou in French Guiana. The rocket manufacturer ArianeGroup says that in a certain sense the first flight is the ultimate test flight. But ESA’s space transport director Toni Tolker-Nielsen is convinced: “Everything has been done to make it a success. If it fails, that would be really bad.”
For ESA boss Josef Aschbacher, Ariane 6 marks a new era of autonomous and versatile space travel. The rocket is significantly cheaper than its predecessor and is intended to make Europe’s space travel more competitive. It can deliver satellites into different orbits and thus also bring constellations into space. The rocket can be equipped with two or four boosters and can transport satellites weighing up to 11.5 tonnes.
A good dozen countries were involved in the construction of the Ariane 6, which is 56 meters high and weighs 540 tons. The upper stage of the rocket was assembled in the Bremen plant of the aerospace company ArianeGroup. The main stage is being built in the French town of Les Mureaux.
While France contributed the largest share of the Ariane 6 funding among the ESA countries, Germany was the second most important donor, with around 20 percent. And technical passengers from Germany are also on board the almost three-hour first flight: Among them are the Nyx Bikini space capsule from The Exploration Company and the OOV-Cube satellites from RapidCubes and Curium One from Planetary Transportation Systems.
But how modern is Ariane 6, which was decided on in 2014 and was originally supposed to launch in 2020? According to ESA boss Aschbacher, it meets current challenges and can be adapted to future ambitions.
If, however, you ask space expert Martin Tajmar from the TU Dresden whether the European rocket is up to date, he answers: “You can forget about that.” He refers to a product from SpaceX: “In 2015, the Falcon 9 rocket successfully landed for the first time and basically started the age of reusable space travel, which of course makes all the others look completely outdated.” But the lengthy decision-making processes at ESA cannot be compared with the way SpaceX works.
The most important thing about Ariane 6 is that it restores access to space, which is one of the original missions of European space travel, says Tajmar. It is also about offering an alternative, even if it is not the cheapest. “It is a really difficult environment to find yourself in.”