Ariane 6 Lifts Off for the First Time

On July 9, the new European Heavy-lift launch vehicle Ariane 6 finally lifted off from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. This long-awaited moment ends a crisis year for European launchers, opening a new era for Europe’s access to space.

The mission was, however, a partial success. After the successful release of eight satellites, a problem with the APU compromised the release of the final two payloads and the nominal reentry into the atmosphere.

The first flight

At 19:00 UTC the Vulcain main engine and two boosters ignited, launching the VA262 maiden mission from the Guiana Space Center. Nearly two minutes into the flight, the two P120C boosters separated from the main stage. Five minutes later also the upper stage separated, and the Vinci engine fired for the first time in space.

Subsequently, through a series of ignitions and shutdowns of the engine and the Auxiliary Propulsion Unit, Ariane 6’s upper stage was placed into a circular orbit to release the eight satellites on board.

The launch isn't over yet…

We are waiting on phase 2 which will put Ariane 6’s newest feature to the test: reignition of the upper stage.

This will be followed by the deployment of the rocket’s eight satellites and the activation of its five onboard experiments.

Coming up… pic.twitter.com/OY93soUjzD

— European Space Agency (@esa) July 9, 2024

Unfortunately, during the coast phase before the third ignition of the Vinci engine, a problem with the Auxiliary Propulsion Unit (APU) compromised the upper stage’s re-ignition for the deorbit maneuver. As a result, the planned release of the reentry capsules after the engine shutdown did not occur.

During the post-launch conference, representatives from ESA, ArieneGroup, CNES and Arianespace confirmed that the analysis of what happened should not impact the schedule of upcoming launches. The next Ariane 6 mission is now planned for the end of 2024.

Despite the failure in the final phase, Ariane 6 has proven ready to operate and conduct the numerous missions planned for the coming years. Importantly, the upper stage, which is the true innovation of this rocket, demonstrated its reignition capabilities. This feature will enable a wide variety of mission configurations, such as deploying constellations or the launch of rideshare missions like this one.

The payloads

The maiden flight of Ariane 6 carried various payloads in a rideshare configuration. Among them several student and institutional experiments like ESA’s Young Professional Satellite (YPSat). Attached to the upper stage, it took pictures and video of the rocket and the deployment of the satellites.

Peregrinus, developed by high-school students at Sint-Pieterscollege in Brussels and the Institut Vallée Bailly in Belgium, will measure the correlation between Earth’s magnetic field and the intensity of hard X-ray and soft gamma radiation.

Once in orbit, Ariane 6’s upper stage released eight Cubesats. Among them, is NASA’s twin CubeSat Radio Interferometry Experiment (CURIE). The two satellites will study radio burst emissions from solar eruptive events such as flares and coronal mass ejections in the inner heliosphere. The NASA experiment was delivered and released by Exolaunch’s EXOpod Nova deployer, which carried three other satellites.

During the reentry phase, the two most valuable payloads, the reentry capsules SC-X01 and Nyx Bikini, were supposed to be released.

Nyx Bikini is a technology demonstrator that should have collected key data for the development of The Exploration Company’s Nyx vehicle. After separation, the 40-kilogram capsule should have re-entered into Earth’s atmosphere at 28,000 km/h. In May, the company was selected for ESA’s cargo transportation initiative to the International Space Station.

SpaceCase SC-X01, developed by ArianeGroup, is a demonstrator for the future SpaceCase service. The capsule’s task was to test the capabilities of its heat shield, made of carbon resin, during atmospheric reentry until it completes a splashdown in the ocean at a final speed of 250 km/h.

A long way towards today’s flight

Today’s launch is the final step in the long development phase of the latest vehicle in the Ariane family.

Funded and conceived by the European Space Agency, the development of the new launcher began in 2014 with the aim of replacing Ariane 5 by 2020. Ariane 6 is produced by a series of companies, with ArianeGroup as the lead contractor. Its subsidiary, Arianespace, is responsible for the commercialization of the rocket’s launch services.

Ariane 6 can carry up to 20,600 kg of payloads to Low Earth Orbit in its heaviest configuration (with four side boosters). Built by the Italian Avio, the P120C solid boosters are already used in the first stage of the Vega C small-lift rocket. The main stage is powered by a LOX/LH2 Vulcain 2.1 engine, developed from Ariane 5’s Vulcain 2.

The upper stage is instead powered by the re-ignitable Vinci engine. Thanks also to the implementation of the Auxiliary Propulsion Unit (APU), the upper stage ensures important mission flexibility for Ariane 6.

Last year, following a series of development delays, components of the new European launcher underwent numerous tests between the launch pad in French Guiana and Lampoldshausen, Germany. The Guiana Space Center is managed by the French Space Agency (CNES) and ESA.

In February 2024, the central core components of the Ariane 6 flight model-1 arrived in Kourou, and by May, the entire vehicle was finally ready on the new launch pad awaiting payloads.