The European Space Agency (ESA) announced this on Tuesday May 21. The inaugural launch of the European Ariane 6 rocket from Kourou is planned for the first half of July. The estimated launch date will be communicated between June 5 and 9, during the ILA air show in Berlin.
Ariane 6 should send its first rocket in the first half of July, the ESA announced. Last November, the slot announced was “between mid-June and the end of July”. The exact forecast launch date will be communicated during the ILA air show in Berlin.i.e. at the beginning of June.
The takeoff of Ariane 6 on the scheduled date will remain subject to possible technical and climatic hazards. The working group reporting on the progress of the launch campaign, which began at the end of April, believes that it is “on the right track”, according to the press release.
The central body of the first Ariane 6, including the main and upper stages as well as the booster thrusters, was installed on the ELA4 launch pad of the Guiana Space Center (CSG) at the end of April.
The launcher will carry eleven “passengers” according to the press release : mini-satellites and scientific experiments, before a second flight, commercial this time.
A final step remains to be taken, before the green light for the launch, with the conclusion in mid-June of the qualification review, the final examination of the rocket and the Ariane 6 launch system.
Initially planned for 2020, the first flight of Ariane 6 (designed to face competition from the American launcher Space X) has been postponed several times due to the Covid-19 pandemic and development difficulties. Europe is, in the meantime, deprived of its own access to space, since the final flight of the Ariane 5 heavy launcher last July.
#French
