2023-08-09 10:07:53
(Paris) The maiden flight of the Ariane 6 rocket, which was planned for the end of 2023, has been officially postponed to 2024, with several ground tests still to be carried out, announced the European Space Agency ( ESA ).
Posted at 6:07 am
This discrepancy, which European space officials hinted at by evoking “possible hazards” in recent months, prolongs the launcher crisis in which Europe is plunged with the end of Ariane 5 and the problems of the small Italian rocket Vega -VS.
The organizations and companies responsible for the program, ESA, Arianegroup, Arianespace and the French space agency CNES “confirm that the maiden launch is now scheduled for 2024”, ESA Director General Joseph Aschbacher said on Twitter on Tuesday. renamed X.
A short firing of the rocket’s main stage Vulcain 2.1 engine, originally scheduled for July 18, has been rescheduled for August 29. Another ignition of this engine, still on the ground, for 500 seconds corresponding to its duration of use in flight is then planned for September 26, detailed Mr. Aschbacher.
At the same time, a third firing test of the Vinci reignitable engine of the rocket’s upper stage – the main innovation of the future launcher – is planned at Lampoldshausen in Germany on September 1.
ESA, prime contractor for European launchers, will be able to specify the launch window for 2024 after the test on September 26, according to its director general.
The program for this new launcher, intended to succeed Ariane 5, which made its last flight in July, and to fulfill the missions previously carried out by the Russian Soyuz rocket, was launched in 2014.
Initially scheduled for 2020, the first flight of Ariane 6, designed to face competition from the American Space X, had already had to be postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and certain development difficulties.
This new postponement deprives Europe of autonomous access to space. If a launch of the Italian Vega rocket is scheduled for September, it must then give way to the new Vega-C version.
However, Vega-C has been grounded since the failure of its first commercial launch in December. And a new anomaly was detected at the end of June during a static firing test of its engine, casting doubt on its return to flight planned for the end of the year.
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