This Week In Launch: Ariane 6 on deck for its maiden launch

Following a double header by SpaceX later today, tomorrow Arianespace and the European Space Agency are ready to attempt its first launch of its Ariane 6 rocket. After years of delays and issues, the rocket has finally made it to the launch pad.

This week’s launches:

• July 8 (Monday)
  • SpaceX | Falcon 9 | Türksat 6A | 5:20 P.M. ET
    • SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida
  • SpaceX | Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 9-3 | 7:46 P.M. PT
    • SLC-4E, Vandenberg Space Force Base, California
• July 9 (Tuesday)
  • ESA/Arianespace | Ariane 6 | Demo Flight | 2:00 P.M. ET
    • ELA-4, Guiana Space Centre, French Guiana
• July 12 (Friday)
  • SpaceX | Falcon 9 | Starlink Group 10-4 | 4:20 A.M. ET
    • SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida

Arianespace and ESA ready for launch

ESA is planning to launch its new rocket, the Ariane 6, from French Guiana in South America. Built for ESA by Arianespace, the rocket has been long delayed, a norm for most rockets.

On board will be a frenzy of smallsats that will host tech demos and small scale experiments but the key mission of the flight will be to make sure Ariane 6 works.

Ariane 6 is replacing the now retired Ariane 5 as ESA’s heavy lift launcher. For quite some time now, ESA has been left without a launcher, with Vega running into reliability issues, Soyuz support being pulled by Russia over sanctions, and Ariane 5’s retirement.

With the Ariane 6 coming online, it is expected to help ease the on going “launch crisis” that Europe has been going through over the last year. Even though, ESA managers believe the Ariane 6 and Falcon 9 are not competitors, European companies continue to book flights with SpaceX over Arianespace for future missions.

Even if ESA is confused about what the Ariane 6 is at the moment, this launch a major achievement for the companies that developed the rocket. Now its up to ESA to ensure it doesn’t end up in an early retirement.