WASHINGTON — The European Space Agency plans to set a goal launch period for the primary Ariane 6 in October, with the hopes that vehicle can finally take flight “not too late” into 2024.
At a Sept. 4 briefing, officials from ESA and other partners on the Ariane 6 said they need to have the ability to announce a variety of dates for the rocket’s inaugural launch after a pair of static-fire tests of the rocket’s core stage and its Vulcain 2.1 engine on the launch pad in Kourou, French Guiana.
The primary of those tests, slated to last about 4 seconds, is scheduled for Sept. 5. That will probably be followed by a 470-second test on Oct. 3 that, if successful, will provide what ESA calls “flight-ready” qualification for the core stage.
Those tests, said ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher, should allow the agency to set a goal for the primary launch, which ESA acknowledged last month had slipped to 2024. “We are going to then be ready to define a launch period for Ariane 6, which we are going to announce to you after these series of tests have been conducted.”
Aschbacher declined to invest when asked if that first launch will happen in the primary half of 2024 if those tests go as planned. “We’re on track. Now we have stabilized the schedule. The tests are looking really good,” he said. “I believe the probabilities, if the whole lot goes perfect, are pretty good that it’s not too late in the subsequent yr, but there are still quite a lot of unknowns ahead of us.”
Those tests haven’t at all times gone perfectly. The four-second static-fire test was originally scheduled for July, but scrubbed for technical issues in addition to a scarcity of liquid oxygen because the countdown was delayed. That test was rescheduled for Aug. 29 but again postponed after what ESA described as a “technical issue affecting the control bench” that handles propellant loading and the automated countdown.
On the briefing, Carine Leveau, director of space transportation on the French space agency CNES, said there was no “clear technical issue” that postponed the test. “We wanted more time to make certain that the whole lot was well-prepared, specifically regarding the control bench,” she said. “Today, the whole lot is OK and clearly explained, so we’re go to perform the chronology tomorrow.”
This system, though, did have fun a successful static-fire test of the Ariane 6’s Vinci upper stage engine Sept. 1 at a facility in Lampoldshausen, Germany, operated by the German aerospace agency DLR. The test, which also involved the upper stage’s auxiliary power unit, confirmed the upper stage’s performance on a nominal flight.
“If that had been a flight, this phase of the flight would have been successful,” said Martin Sion, chief executive of ArianeGroup, prime contractor for the Ariane 6.
A final static-fire test of the upper stage is planned for this fall, again at Lampoldshausen, to check the performance of the stage in “degraded” conditions and other mission profiles. “I don’t think there will probably be an issue to make this test in due time,” Sion said, noting that the test was needed to show the reliability of the vehicle.
The successful upper stage test was proof of the “versatility of the Ariane 6,” including the flexibility to restart the upper stage, said Stéphane Israël, chief executive of Arianespace. “What has been demonstrated could be very convincing for what we could have to do for our customers.”
Arianespace has 28 Ariane 6 launches in its order book, with the biggest single customer being Amazon, which ordered 18 launches for its Project Kuiper constellation. Amazon is facing a July 2026 deadline as a part of its Federal Communications Commission license to launch half of its 3,236 satellites using the Ariane 6 together with Blue Origin’s Recent Glenn and United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur, none of which have yet to launch.
“The dialogue with Amazon is an impressive dialogue,” Israël said of discussions with the corporate on its launch plans.
The fee of Ariane 6 development stays at roughly 4 billion euros ($4.3 billion). “In the intervening time the price is contained,” said Toni Tolker-Nielsen, ESA’s director of space transportation. That cost estimate, he added, includes 20% margin for contingencies that has not yet been exceeded.
Sion, though, said that the delays in Ariane 6 “have created very significant costs borne by ArianeGroup,” but didn’t elaborate.
Vega C update
While the Sept. 4 briefing was primarily dedicated to the status of the Ariane 6, ESA did provide an update on the Vega C small launch vehicle, which has been grounded since a December 2022 launch failure. Its return-to-flight plans suffered a setback in June when the Zefiro 40 second-stage motor, the reason behind the December launch failure, suffered an “anomaly” during a static-fire test.
An independent inquiry board is continuous to analyze the anomaly, Aschbacher said, with its final report is anticipated before the top of September. “It’s too early now to say something on the foundation cause.”
Within the meantime, Arianespace is moving ahead with a launch of the unique version of Vega, which doesn’t use the Zefiro 40 motor. Arianespace announced Aug. 31 it has scheduled a Vega launch for Oct. 4 carrying the THEOS-2 Earth remark satellite for Thailand and the FORMOSAT-7R/Triton satellite for the Taiwanese Space Agency to gather radio occultation data for meteorology. The rocket may also carry 10 secondary payloads.