Europe is back to space with the succesful launch of Ariane 6

On Tuesday night, the spaceport in French Guyana witnessed the maiden flight of the much awaited Ariane 6 rocket, a successor to Europe's Ariane 5, which was retired last summer. The launch was successful, but not everything happened as planned.

The Ariane 6 launched years late and exactly a year after the Ariane 5's last mission. The launch was extremely crucial for the European Space Agency (ESA) and the whole European spaceflight sector since it restored Europe's autonomous access to space.

Not only was Ariane 5 pulled out of service, but so was the smaller rocket launcher Vega-C, which had technical troubles and had to be grounded for an extended period of time. With Ariane 6's inaugural mission and Vega-C's return-to-flight mission now scheduled for November, ESA has some peace of mind, at least temporarily.

Ariane 6 is a two-stage rocket capable of carrying two (A62) or four (A64) extra strap-on solid rocket boosters. The spaceship stands 63 meters (207 feet) tall, and the less powerful A62 model launched yesterday can transport 10 metric tons to low Earth orbit (LEO).

Onboard Ariane 6 were various fixed experimental equipment and smallsats, including the tiny gamma-ray burst observatory GRBBeta (2U CubeSat), which also includes the smallest UV telescope in space with a dimension of only two millimeters.

The majority of the spacecraft were released a little more than an hour after launch, marking the mission's success. However, the subsequent technical demonstration of turning on the so-called Auxillary Propulsion Unit (APU) and restarting the upper-stage Vinci engine failed. As a result, the upper stage deviated from its original course, canceling the planned deorbit burn. Furthermore, the final components of the cargo, two reentry capsules, did not detach from the spacecraft, reducing space debris created by the accident.

ArianeGroup, the rocket's major contractor, stated during the post-flight press conference that it does not know what caused the problem. An analysis and study will be performed. More importantly, the issues will not influence the upcoming flights.

According to ESA and ArianeGroup, the failure occurred during the demo phase while evaluating the upper stage's behavior and capacity to restart in the microgravity environment. However, because this capability is mission-specific, it would not create any delays in missions that do not require this maneuver as part of their flight profile.

Ariane 6's second launch is presently slated for December, with six additional flights planned for 2025. This is critical for several clients who are awaiting the Ariane 6 to transport their cargo to orbit.Jeff Bezos and Amazon's Kuiper constellation aims to compete with Elon Musk's Starlink satellite internet service.

To comply with the FCC license, Amazon must build half of the constellation (1,618 satellites) by summer 2026. Ariane 6 is one of four rockets contracted by Bezos to carry out this mission. Amazon purchased 18 flights of the more powerful A64 version.