The final countdown has begun: four years late, the rocket Ariane 6 is due to rise for the first time on Tuesday above the Guyanese jungle, carrying with it Europe’s hopes of regaining independent access to space.
The launch is ultimately not scheduled before 4 p.m. (3 p.m. in Quebec) instead of 3 p.m., due to a minor problem with ground installations, which has been resolved, the European Space Agency (ESA) indicated on X.
At the first light of day at the Guiana Space Centre (CSG) in Kourou, the mobile gantry, a vast 90-metre-high cathedral that houses the rocket, was slowly removed in a light rain, revealing the 56-metre rocket, an AFP journalist observed.
A new weather report at 10 am gave the “GO for filling”, announced ESA on X. The operation, lasting an hour and a half, consists of filling the rocket’s tanks with cryogenic propellants – the liquid oxygen and hydrogen that power the Vulcain engine.
Any anomaly requiring physical intervention would now require the tanks to be emptied, automatically leading to a 48-hour postponement of the launch, according to Jean-Michel Rizzi, head of the launch base. Ariane 6 for ESA.
Locked in the launch center’s bunker, a sort of rocket cockpit, more than 200 experts monitor the launcher until it leaves the ground, ready to interrupt the countdown and resolve any problems, he said.
The launch center is in constant contact with the Jupiter room, the control tower where all telemetry data (data sent at any time by the rocket), radar tracking and communications information, and liaison with the armed forces deployed in large numbers to ensure the safety of the launch are centralized.
Three Rafale fighter jets were deployed to deter any overly curious aircraft.
“A share of risk”
Decided in 2014, Ariane 6 will also be able to place satellites in geostationary orbit at an altitude of 36,000 kilometers — like its predecessor Ariane 5 — than putting constellations into orbit a few hundred kilometers from Earth.
The rocket was “qualified” on the ground after multiple rehearsals. “We did so many timelines [de lancement] we tell ourselves that it’s routine, except that this time, it’s real, it’s going to take off,” enthuses Franck Saingou, deputy director of the inaugural flight.
Historically, nearly half of all first rocket launches have been failures, such as the first one in 1996. Ariane 5who nevertheless only had two failures in 117 shots.
“It’s a first flight, there is an element of risk, we have tried to reduce it as much as possible, we are confident,” says Philippe Baptiste, CEO of CNES, the French space agency.
“We will be able to breathe a first sigh of relief when we have released the first satellites,” one hour and six minutes after take-off, calculates Tony Dos Santos, head of mission at ESA.
The success will be total with the successful fall into the Pacific of the upper stage at the end of the mission, following a third re-ignition of the Vinci engine, the main innovation of the rocket.
The successful flight will mark Europe’s “return” to the space scene, according to ESA’s head of space transportation, Toni Tolker-Nielsen.
Since the last flight ofAriane 5 A year ago, Europeans could no longer put a satellite into orbit by themselves: since the invasion of Ukraine, they no longer have access to the Russian Soyuz medium launcher, and the rocket Vega-C has been grounded since late 2022, following an accident.
But according to him, it will then be necessary to succeed in increasing the rate of flights, with another at the end of the year, six planned in 2025 and eight the following year.
For its first flight, Ariane 6 will carry 17 “passengers” on board: 11 university microsatellites, various experiments and two atmospheric re-entry capsules, which must prepare the space cargo ship wanted by the Europeans to resupply the space stations.