HELSINKI — Europe is on the brink of a defining moment as the Ariane 6 launch vehicle prepares for its maiden flight on Tuesday.
Ariane 6 is scheduled to lift off from the Kourou launch site in French Guiana between 14:00–18:00 Eastern (1800–2200 UTC) on July 9. The European Space Agency (ESA) is broadcasting the launch live via ESAWebTV.
Ariane 6’s first flight will feature the 56-meter “62” variant, equipped with two solid boosters. The main stage is powered by the Vulcain 2.1 engine running on liquid hydrogen and oxygen. It is an upgrade from the Ariane 5 Vulcain main engine.
The 62 can carry up to 10.3 tonnes to low Earth orbit, while the larger ’64’, featuring four solid boosters, can lift up to 21.6 tonnes. However, the first flight will only carry a number of small satellites and experiments from space agencies, companies, research institutes, universities and young professionals.
The first launch follows years of delays. The launcher is designed to succeed the venerable and now-retired Ariane 5 while keeping costs down. The rocket was previously scheduled to fly for the first time in 2020.
Ariane 6’s first launch — given launch vehicle delays, a 30-order backlog and the European space access crisis — will be a high-pressure and subsequent first flight for prime contractor ArianeGroup, launch service provider Arianespace, ESA and other stakeholders.
“It is critical for Europe to have autonomous access to space again,” said Hermann Ludwig Möller, director of the European Space Policy Institute. SpaceNews.
This would ensure the launch of own institutional missions. This includes the EU space programme, EUMETSAT weather satellites, ESA missions, security and defense related missions and commercial operator missions, Möller noted.
Ariane 6 already has 30 launches booked, 18 of which are to the Amazon’s Kuiper constellation.
There is a sense of danger, with plans to increase Ariane 6 flights to nine a 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 fail or happen exactly as planned,” Josef Aschbacher, ESA’s director general, said in May, tempering expectations.
Möller added that the operational launch vehicle will benefit “space applications such as climate monitoring, improved weather forecasting, banking and synchronization services, secure communications, 5G and the Internet, civil and economic security, including the protection of critical infrastructures in transport, energy, digital and defense applications.”
“Ariana 6 is essential and a prerequisite for the implementation of a wider European space policy and strategy.”
Asked how the costly Ariane 6 and its major delays have potentially cost the European space sector, Möller said: “The main impact, in our view, is the fact that the focus on the launch vehicle crisis has hampered progress on other files and in particular on the accelerated use of space at a time when other space powers and commercial enterprises are doing just that, in a race.
“And it is not the Falcon 9 rocket that is most visible in the debate, but the Starlink communications constellation, familiar to every taxi driver. It is not too late for Europe to catch up and IRIS2 is a step in that direction. But the window of opportunity is now, and it will close.
With the unexpected gap between Ariane 5 retiring and Ariane 6 coming online, ESA was due to launch its Euclid space telescope on a Falcon 9 last year, followed by the EarthCARE satellite in May.
In particular, European weather satellite operator Eumetsat announced in late June that it had moved one of its geostationary weather satellites from the Ariane 6 to the Falcon 9. The move, made for complex but unexplained reasons, according to Eumetsat, surprised European space officials.
Another development, partly in response to the space access crisis, is that Europe wants to diversify its launch services. An ESA Council resolution of 5 July determined how the ESA-developed Vega would 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 usher in 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 rockets while ESA and the EU provide the service. “The development and operation of the Ariane 6 post-launch service will be led by private industry,” the RFA said. Meanwhile, the firm hailed Ariane 6 as a “great pan-European project” and was excited about the launch.
Möller noted that Europe also needs to look beyond the debut launch. “By July 10, the focus in Europe must shift beyond launch vehicles 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 well as for the protection of global peace and an inspiration to future generations.”
