Europe's Ariane 6 rocket set for maiden flight after data glitch
PARIS, July 9 (Reuters) -Europe's Ariane 6 rocket was set to blast off for the first time on Tuesday, ending a year-long hiatus in the continent's autonomous access to space after a last-minute data glitch.
The rocket's nearly three-hour inaugural mission will not be a commercial flight but will carry satellites and experiments from European agencies, companies and universities.
Pictures released by the European Space Agency showed the 56-metre rocket sitting on its launchpad in French Guiana, where the agency described the latest weather report as "green".
"It looks very good. We have moderate risk of thunderstorms, but it's getting better going into the (launch) window. So weather should not be a problem today," Toni Tolker-Nielsen, ESA's acting director of space transportation, told Reuters from the control room at Europe's equatorial space port.
The rocket was officially scheduled to lift off during a four-hour launch window starting at 3:00 p.m. (1800 GMT). The space agency said routine checks had shown a "small issue" in a data acquisition system, so the first hour of the launch window was lost and the earliest lift-off would be at 1900 GMT.
"This is just the first step, we have lots of work to do yet, but we are laser-focused on changing the future of the European space transportation ecosystem," ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher said on X.
Ariane 6 was developed at an estimated cost of 4 billion euros by ArianeGroup, co-owned by Airbus and Safran, and its arrival, originally due in 2020, has been repeatedly delayed.
Since the agency retired its workhorse Ariane 5 rocket more than a year ago, Europe has had no independent means of sending its satellites into space, while war in Ukraine has cut Western ties to Russian Soyuz rockets and Italy's Vega C is grounded.
A new generation of small European commercial launchers remains in early development mode.
Aschbacher has said the vacuum in Europe's access to space has been a major setback, with European agencies forced to hitch a ride with the Falcon 9 rockets of Elon Musk's rival SpaceX in the United States.
ESA's 22 nations agreed in 2014 to develop two versions of Ariane 6 in the face of growing competition led by SpaceX.
The United States and dozens of other countries have come to rely heavily on Falcon 9 for reaching orbit as everyday life on Earth becomes increasingly reliant on satellite links and data.
If all goes well with its debut, the launcher has about 30 customer missions to launch over the next several years.
That includes 18 launches for Amazon's Kuiper internet constellation of thousands of satellites, one of a few planned rivals to SpaceX's Starlink.
If Tuesday's launch is postponed, ESA has set itself an initial window for further launch attempts until July 31.
Reporting by Tim Hepher, Joey Roulette; Editing by Bernadette Baum
Related Assets
Latest News
Disclaimer: The XM Group entities provide execution-only service and access to our Online Trading Facility, permitting a person to view and/or use the content available on or via the website, is not intended to change or expand on this, nor does it change or expand on this. Such access and use are always subject to: (i) Terms and Conditions; (ii) Risk Warnings; and (iii) Full Disclaimer. Such content is therefore provided as no more than general information. Particularly, please be aware that the contents of our Online Trading Facility are neither a solicitation, nor an offer to enter any transactions on the financial markets. Trading on any financial market involves a significant level of risk to your capital.
All material published on our Online Trading Facility is intended for educational/informational purposes only, and does not contain – nor should it be considered as containing – financial, investment tax or trading advice and recommendations; or a record of our trading prices; or an offer of, or solicitation for, a transaction in any financial instruments; or unsolicited financial promotions to you.
Any third-party content, as well as content prepared by XM, such as: opinions, news, research, analyses, prices and other information or links to third-party sites contained on this website are provided on an “as-is” basis, as general market commentary, and do not constitute investment advice. To the extent that any content is construed as investment research, you must note and accept that the content was not intended to and has not been prepared in accordance with legal requirements designed to promote the independence of investment research and as such, it would be considered as marketing communication under the relevant laws and regulations. Please ensure that you have read and understood our Notification on Non-Independent Investment. Research and Risk Warning concerning the foregoing information, which can be accessed here.
