The new European Ariane 6th winning rocket has started for the first time for a commercial flight into space. The rocket took off from the European Space Railway station in Kourou in French Guayana in the late Thursday afternoon at 5:24 p.m. Central European period, as live images showed. The Ariane 6 had a satellite of the French Air Force on board.
The start of the Arina 6 had to be postponed three times, most recently on Monday because of an “anomaly on the ground”, as it was said. Today the flight engineers gave the green light and the countdown left without interruption.
Two minutes after the rocket was lifted and disappeared into the deep -hanging clouds, the two booster were blown out at a height of 90 kilometers and the upper level was ignited. Six minutes later, at a height of around 280 kilometers, the lower and upper level of the rocket separated. The latter continued with her freight at the top. About an hour after the start, the satellite was suspended in an orbit. The mission of the first commercial flight of the Ariane 6 was fulfilled.
Flexible rocket is not reusable
The Ariane 6, which completed its maiden flight last summer, is the successor to the Ariane 5, which was used from 1996 to 2023. It is intended to promote satellites for commercial and public clients into space and, according to the European space agency ESA, is significantly cheaper than its predecessor. With the new sponsorship rocket, Europe wants to become more independent of the USA and Russia in space travel.
Depending on the mission, the flexible and modular rocket can be equipped with two or four boosters. During the first flight in July and now she flew with two, at the end of the year it should take off for the first time with four boosters.
The rocket can transport up to 11.5 tons of payload in higher and up to 21.6 tons into lower orbit. Due to the possibility of repeating the upper level, the Ariane can place 6 satellites in different positions and orbits.
The ESA sees the rocket as the current challenges. The space expert Martin Tajmar from the TU Dresden, on the other hand, says that it is not up to date – for example because it is not reusable.
Temporarily overcome crisis with the first launch
Actually, the Ariane 6 should have flyed into space in 2020. There were always delays. The rocket ultimately picked up for the first time at four years late. At the time, her predecessor had not been on duty for about a year and the Vega C, which transported smaller satellites, remained on the ground after her failed commercial first start.
The ESA spoke of a crisis by the sponsoring rocket sector. Sometimes she evaded Falcon 9 rockets from the US company SpaceX. With the Ariane 6 start, the ESA saw the crisis overcome.
Germany also made a contribution
A dozen countries were involved in the construction of the Ariane 6. The upper level was installed in Bremen, the tanks of the upper level and parts of the engine come from Augsburg or Ottobrunn. The Vinci engine was tested in Lampoldshausen in Baden-Württemberg. According to France, Germany is the most important donor among the ESA countries and has trained around 20 percent of the costs of around four billion euros.
