Arianespace

After four years of delays, Europe’s Ariane 6 rocket is poised for its first launch next week, aiming to restore the Continent’s independent access to space and counter the intense competition from Elon Musk’s SpaceX. The European Space Agency’s most powerful rocket is scheduled to blast off from its South American spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, at 2:00 p.m. EDT (18:00 UTC) July 9.

ESA has shared a timeline for what is left for Ariane 6 before launching its first mission. The new heavy lift rocket has two more ground tests on the booster and upper stage before a launch window opens up targeting mid-June to July 2024.

On Thanksgiving day here in the US, ESA conducted a simulated launch static fire of the Ariane 6 first stage booster. Powered by a single Vulcain 2.1 engine, the stage burned through almost 150 tons of fuel over a seven minute burn.

After a rather eventful weekend, SpaceX only has one launch schedule for the week with a private Chinese company making a rare appearance, and Russia’s military launching a Soyuz 2. However, on Thanksgiving day, Arianespace and the ESA are planning a test of its Vulcain 2.1 engine down in French Guiana.

Yesterday marked the end of an era for European space launches with the final flight of the Ariane 5 rocket. With the mission completed, Europe now finds itself in a precarious position without an available launcher in the short term.

This week we have a few launches out of the Americas, one that is bittersweet, then two that will feel normal to all of us. The bittersweet one will of course be the Ariane 5’s final flight before retirement.

The end of an era is just around the corner with the final launch of Ariane 5, a heavy-lift launch that has delivered the most revered of payloads to a range of orbits. Famously, Ariane 5 launched the James Webb Space Telescope on Christmas Day in 2021. The 117th flight has been delayed, extending the rocket’s final moments on Earth.

While we only have two launches this week, both have potentially significant implications for the future of spaceflight and science. First up will be SpaceX’s Transporter-7 mission with a rumored new MVAC design, and the second is the launch of ESA’s JUICE mission to Jupiter’s moons.

Next week Arianespace is looking to return to launching rockets and make its 2023 debut with a launch of the Ariane 5 heavy-lift rocket from French Guiana. Ariane 5 will get to launch one more major scientific milestone mission before its retirement later this year.

Tuesday, Arianespace announced it signed a new contract for two launches, with an option of a third, from the European Space Agency and the Italian Government. However, no response has been made on the validity of Vega-C’s failure investigation.

Friday, Arianespace released its findings from its independent review commission’s investigation into December’s Vega-C failure, blaming a Ukrainian supplier. Now, it looks like Ukraine disagrees with the commission’s findings.

On December 22, Arianespace launched its second-ever Vega-C rocket from the Guiana Space Centre in South America. However, the launch failed shortly after the second stage ignition, and now we know why.

Earlier this week, Arianespace suffered another failure with its Vega rocket, this time with the upgraded Vega-C variant. The launch took place from the Guiana Space Centre in South America and was supposed to carry two French satellites into orbit.

Arianespace is making great strides in the push to launch the Ariane 6. In a recent blog post, they shared a video of a test firing of the second stage.

Early tomorrow morning, while those who celebrate Christmas will be busy opening gifts, NASA and Arianespace will be launching the most powerful space telescope ever built. Check before for updates on this once-in-a-generation launch.

This morning, the spaceflight and science communities held their breath as Arianespace launched the long-awaited James Webb Space Telescope. But, while the launch is now done, Webb has a long trip to go and many more obstacles to face.

NASA announced Monday that the launch of its next-generation space telescope would move to December 22 after an issue with one of the adapter clamps caused vibrations to the observatory.

Update: NASA confirmed in a blog post that no additional damage was seen during testing.