Europe already has the two rockets totally operational They put it in a mess: Vega-C and Ariane 6. The European Space Agency (ESA) breathes relieved, but knows that it is not the same to recover autonomous access to space as to compete with Spacex. For that, more investment in private companies will need.
The Ariane 6 rocket has flown, now, without mishaps of any kind
The rocket for heavy loads ariane 6 of that He has successfully completed his first commercial flight. After numerous delays, the rocket took off in its Ariane 62 configuration (with two lateral propellers and a short cofa) from the always cloudy European space port in the French Guiana.
The launch operated by Arianespace was impeccable, both in rocket yield as in live broadcastwhich had four cameras aboard the pitcher. In this second launch, the first commercial and the first totally successful, the Ariane 6 put in Heliosíncrona orbit the spy cso-3 satellite of the armed forces of France. He did 1 hour and 6 minutes after takeoff, 800 km altitude.
The CSO-3 satellite has thus joined its precursors CSO-1 and CSO-2, launched in 2018 and 2020 by Soyuz rockets, before the EU forbade collaboration with Russia. The new French recognition network offers optical and infrared images with unprecedented quality for France and its allies.
The Ariane 6 rocket, developed by Arianegroup for ESA, is therefore operational. His first launch, held in July 2024 (one year after Ariane 5 flew for the last time) was successful in the takeoff and deployment of several satellites, but failed to exorbitar, leaving two reentry capsules strained in orbit that were part of the mission.
A temperature parameter out of the rank caused the rocket software to prevent the third ignition of the Vinci engine of the upper stage. A software update was enough to face the second launch, although it has occurred almost eight months after Ariane 6 debut.
Europe begins to recover its sovereignty in space
ESA already sees light at the end of the tunnel. The European launch crisis caused by the delays of the Ariane 6 heavy rocket and the incidents of the Vega-C light rocket reduced the number of annual flights to only threethe minimum of 15 years. Strategic missions such as Galileo (European GPS) or Spanish military satellite spainsat ng 1 They had to be thrown by Spacex.
By 2025, ESA plans to make 10 space releases, six from Ariane 6 (including the first Ariane 64 with four propellers) and four vega-c. It is far behind the nearly 200 launches scheduled by the United States (mainly, Spacex Starlink missions), but it is a number that is closer to the goal of recovering autonomous access to space, something that becomes special importance with the Europe rearme announced by Ursula von der Leyen.
Josef Aschbacher, general director of ESA, said that the United States It allocates five times more public money to the space sector that Europe, which explains the gap in the rhythm of launches and the manufacture of satellites. The question is whether Ariane 6 and Vega-C, which are not reusable rockets, can even compete with Spacex’s falcon. And as Aschbacher knows no, that is tending all kinds of contracts for a new generation of reusable European pitchers, in which companies such as the Spanish PLD Space participate.
Image | Arianegroup
In Xataka | China and Europe are investing a fortune in their own Starlink: the US advantage is too big to ignore it