Hotfire testing of the brand new Ariane 6 rocket has been delayed attributable to problems with ground equipment.
Test firing of the large Ariane 6 rocket’s core stage didn’t happen as planned on Aug. 29 at Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, the European Space Agency announced via X (formerly often known as Twitter) a day later.
The cause was a technical issue affecting the control system that governs the rocket’s critical fluid operations, used for filling the launcher and the automated countdown. “Specialists are working on an answer. The subsequent attempt is planned for five September 2023,” the ESA post read.
The short hotfire test will see the rocket’s Vulcain 2.1 engine fire for a matter of seconds. An extended test firing is planned for Sept. 26, despite the delay, while the rocket’s upper stage will undergo a 3rd hot-firing test on the German aerospace agency DLR’s technical center in Lampoldshausen on Sept. 1, in keeping with an Aug. 9 ESA statement.
Ariane 6’s short hot firing test at Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, was postponed on 29 August 2023 attributable to a technical issue affecting the control bench governing the critical fluidic operations (the launcher’s filling and the automated countdown). Specialists are…August 30, 2023
Earlier this month the CEO of France-based company Arianespace confirmed that the inaugural launch of the brand new Ariane 6 heavy-lift rocket will slip into 2024.
Ariane 6 was initially planned to start flying in 2020 and replace the aging Ariane 5. That rocket has since retired, launching for the final time in July. This, coupled with the grounding of the Vega C rocket following a failure last 12 months, means Europe is currently without independent access to space.