Ariane 6 completes successful maiden flight from French Guiana

Ariane 6, Europe’s new heavy-lift rocket, marks a significant milestone in the continent’s space exploration endeavors. Conceived in the 2010s, this powerful launch vehicle is designed to replace the retired Ariane 5 rocket, halving the launch costs over time while offering the potential for more launches each year.

The configuration for Ariane 6’s maiden flight was the Ariane 62 (A62), featuring two P120 solid rocket boosters manufactured by Avio. These boosters, along with the first stage, upper stage, and fairing, contributed to the rocket’s impressive height of 56 meters and a diameter of 5.4 meters (excluding the solid boosters). At liftoff, the fully-stacked Ariane 62 had a staggering mass of 540 tonnes.

Ariane 62 generated a tremendous 8,400 kN of thrust at liftoff, while the more powerful A64 configuration, with four solid boosters, can produce up to 15,400 kN of thrust. The A62 configuration has a payload capacity of 10.3 tonnes to low-Earth orbit, while the A64 can carry up to an impressive 21.6 tonnes.

The development and construction of Ariane 6 involved the collaboration of many European countries, with France contributing the most at 55.6%, followed by Germany at 20.8%, Italy at 7.7%, Spain at 4.7%, and Belgium at 3.8%. In total, 13 European nations contributed funds to the rocket’s development and operation.

The first stage, or “the core,” holds most of Ariane 6’s liquid propellant and features the liquid-fueled Vulcain 2.1 engine, delivering 1,370 kN of thrust at liftoff. The Vulcain 2.1 is an improved version of the previous Vulcain 2 engine used on the Ariane 5, with a reduced part count, lower cost, and shorter production time.

One of the most significant changes in the Ariane infrastructure is the upper stage, powered by the Vinci engine. Developed by ArianeGroup, the Vinci utilizes liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, with the ability to restart up to five times, enabling more complex in-orbit missions. Additionally, the engine features a deployable rocket nozzle extension, increasing its overall length after stage separation from 2.3 to 4.2 meters.

Ariane 6’s maiden flight carried an impressive array of 11 payloads from various space agencies, commercial companies, and universities. Leading the pack was ExoPod Nova, a payload deployment mechanism provided by Exolaunch. Constructed in Berlin, this advanced cubesat deployment system will host four satellites within its 16-unit, three-door “S3” configuration.

One of the satellites carried by ExoPod Nova is the 3Cat-4 from the University of Catalonia, designed to demonstrate a novel dual-frequency GNSS-R and GNSS-RI altimeter and scatterometer. ISTSat-1, the first cubesat developed by a Portuguese university, will test Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) technology for aircraft surveillance.

The Cubesat Radio Interferometry Experiment (CURIE), a collaboration between the University of California and NASA, aims to study radio interferometry of radio burst emissions from eruptive solar events using two identical 3U cubesats. GRBBeta, a successor to the GRBAlpha mission launched in 2021, will detect and characterize gamma-ray bursts from massive solar events.

Nyx Bikini, a technology pathfinder reentry capsule from The Exploration Company, will collect data on atmospheric reentry and heat shields, withstanding temperatures up to 2,100 degrees Celsius. OOV-Cube, a nanosatellite developed by TU Berlin and Rapid Cubes GmbH, will test various technologies, including inter-satellite communications, Perovskite solar cells, onboard AI inference, and IoT technology.

LIFI, provided by Oledcomm, will demonstrate the application of a higher-security, high-bandwidth version of WiFi using light communication between two SateLiFe payloads. The Spacecraft Identification and Localization (SIDLOC) experiment from the Libre Space Foundation aims to speed up the process of identifying space missions in orbit by transmitting signals carrying location and identity information to ground stations.

PariSat, developed by the Garef Aerospatial amateur space club in Paris, will test eight 4-cm square plates as in-space radiators. Peregrinus, created by high-school students in Belgium, aims to measure the correlation between Earth’s magnetic field and the occurrence and intensity of X-ray and gamma radiation.

RAMI, an interplanetary deployment mechanism from UARX Space, will demonstrate a simplified way to store and deploy cubesats, hosting the Replicator mission from Orbital Matter and the Robusta-3A mission from the University of Montpellier. Robusta-3A, developed by over 300 students, aims to improve weather forecasts around the Mediterranean Sea.

SpaceCase SC-X01, a reentry capsule designed by ArianeGroup, features a heat shield constructed of structural heat-resistant carbon resin to help develop lighter and cheaper future heat shields. Curium One, a 12-unit cubesat from Planetary Transportation Systems, will serve as an open-source hardware and software testbed for amateur radio communities.

ESA’s YPSat (Young Professionals Satellite) will capture key phases of Ariane 6’s maiden flight, relaying images down to Earth before reentering the atmosphere. With such a diverse array of payloads, Ariane 6’s inaugural mission represents a significant step forward in Europe’s space exploration capabilities.