The thing that gives you shivers is the sound. Despite light being faster, it’s the vibration of the rocket that makes you realize just what a big deal this is. You can see the light from the rocket in the sky, stunning without a doubt, but it’s in the following seconds as the soundwaves catch up with the view that you (the building, and the jungle of French Guiana) reverberate with the roar. Making that roar is Ariane 6, Europe’s new way to get to space.
The inaugural launch of Ariane 6 – the European Space Agency’s (ESA) big new rocket – was a great success, despite the full mission concluding slightly earlier due to a technical issue, and IFLScience was right there to witness it.
The rocket flew as expected, releasing the payload and coasting in space for almost two hours before a test in the demonstration phase did not fully succeed. ESA and partner ArianeGroup were hoping to demonstrate the ability to reignite the Vinci engine on the upper stage in space. This is helped by an “auxiliary propulsion unit” (APU). Unfortunately, it didn’t work as planned, starting as expected but then turning itself off, leaving the upper stage in orbit.
The Vinci engine problem didn’t dampen the mood in the room at all though. The atmosphere was electric and celebrations were definitely warranted.
“We don’t know why it stopped,” Martin Sion, CEO of ArianeGroup, said in the post-flight press conference, that we attended. Analysis over the coming weeks will hopefully provide an understanding of what happened and a solution for the next test of this new technology. Speaking with the engineering team earlier this week, they remarked on the uncertainties of this phase of the flight. You can’t simulate microgravity to test an engine on Earth. You need to get to space.
The Vinci engine problem didn’t dampen the mood in the room at all though. The atmosphere was electric and celebrations were definitely warranted. This heavy launcher and the upcoming flights of the medium launcher Vega-C bring Europe back to the forefront of orbital deliveries.
“I mean this is incredible! With Ariane 6, we are regaining access to space,” Dr Josef Aschbacher, ESA Director General, told IFLScience in an exclusive interview after the launch. “Satellites are used for everyday life, for weather forecasting, navigation, telecommunications; many things where people depend daily on the data or information from the satellites. Ariane 6 is necessary to launch these satellites.”
It’s Been A Long Road
The rocket did take longer than expected to get here, with several delays over the years. Ahead of the inaugural launch, however, the mood was serene and confident. The day after the launch the vibe was that the delays gave them the time to get so much of it right.
“We have done everything that could be done,” Toni Tolker-Nielsen, ESA Director of Space Transportation, told IFLScience, a sentiment immediately emphasized by Lucía Linares, ESA Head of Strategy and Institutional Launches, with an even stronger “Everything!”
There is always a residual risk when it comes to space flight but the success of this historic inaugural launch is a testament to the hard work of the many people and organizations that worked on this rocket. Yesterday’s performance shows that Ariane 6 is a worthy successor to Ariane 5, the launcher that took to space some of the most groundbreaking astronomy missions of this century, including JWST.
It was incredible to experience a launch in person.
Image credit: Dr Alfredo Carpineti/IFLScience
The new rocket goes above and beyond the enormous successes of its predecessor. Ariane 6 is bigger but lighter, which matters enormously in rocket science. Every gram you take up needs extra fuel to get to orbit. It’s cheaper, it’s more capable, and it is more environmentally friendly, although the full analysis of that also depends on yesterday’s data.
There is going to be a second launch this year, likely in December, and then the launch schedule massively ramps up: six launches next year, eight in 2026, and then a regular of nine launches every year. ESA says it’s staying booked and busy when it comes to Ariane 6.
Geopolitics and competition
That said, a spot just became available. Last week, the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) decided to launch with SpaceX and not with Ariane 6, a decision described as “surprising” by Aschbacher. During the press conference, the mission team made clear that all the requirements for the launch of EUMETSAT were achieved within the first 18 minutes of the inaugural flight.
The comparisons between this new rocket and SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy is a matter of intense debate online, in the sector, and in political halls across the member states of the European Space Agency. When Ariane 6 was conceived, SpaceX had not demonstrated that rockets can be reused on such a scale. A decade later, the Falcon fleet has that advantage compared to the latest Ariane, which gives them a financial edge in most configurations.
This doesn’t mean that Ariane 6 is always a step behind SpaceX. In the Ariane 64 version (with four boosters), the European rocket has a payload edge. Not all SpaceX rocket launches are designed with recovery in mind, but in those where it is, Ariane 64 can bring more payload. This is because the reusable version needs to take into account the fuel to safely bring back the rockets and booster, and that eats at the payload capability. More payload can be taken on Falcon Heavy in its expendable variation, but it is more costly than Ariane 64.
“We would like to make [Ariane 6] even cheaper and more versatile, to make sure we are ready for the future,” Dr Aschbacher told us in our discussion. He also mentioned the European Launcher Challenge bringing the commercial contract model that NASA has with SpaceX and Boeing to European launches. For that one, reusable rockets are seen as the logical step forward.
Despite the comparison with what private industries Stateside are doing, Ariane 6 brought down costs by almost half compared to Ariane 5. Crucial to that has been taking lessons from the airways industry, such as horizontal assembly which allows for the mission engineers to speed up the testing, production, and assembly of each rocket.
It is then moved to the Mobile Gantry building, a feat of engineering here at the Guiana Space Center. Unlike the launches at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center where the rocket is brought to the launchpad from an assembly building, here it is the building that moves away from the launchpad. On the days of testing or launch its massive doors open (it’s 90 meters high), freeing the rocket. It weighs more than 8,200 tons – “more than the metallic frame of the Eiffel Tower” an excited ESA engineer told me just before we saw it move.
Leaving The Earth… But In A Better State
In the days and hours before the launch, the environmental considerations that went into the creation, transportation, and launch of Ariane 6 came up over and over again from different angles. Europe’s Spaceport is just on the outskirts of the city of Kourou, French Guaina but it is mostly tropical rainforest.
Being just 5 degrees north from the equator – a very useful place for launch – and having a secure area of 690 square kilometers (266 square miles) with minimal presence of humans and buildings makes for a great nature reserve. Red deers, tapirs, and jaguars have been caught on camera traps here. There are also capybaras and a wide variety of birds, and of course sloths like Gérard who became famous for strolling into the livestream of ESA’s JUICE launch on Ariane 5 last year. We have not seen a sloth but have seen monkeys and a stowawayfrog jumped on me on a bus.
In terms of launch safety, Helene Escarguel, the Launch Range Mission Manager and Massimiliano Costantini, the Weather and Flight Safety Department Manager, made it crystal clear that if there was any danger for people or the environment due to an unexpected change in the trajectory of the rocket, they were ready to pull the plug. The possibility of having to blow up the rocket was there, but the risk to people was minimal as winds and weather conditions were monitored to the last second to make sure, nobody would be at risk.
Those explanations felt very important in light of several environmental concerns raised after SpaceX’s inaugural Starship launch. The spacecraft was detonated in flight and its pieces rained down on the Texas coast starting an official investigation. The launchpad was blown to pieces due to some features missing, the reason circulating being the launch was moved forward to allow CEO Elon Musk to make a weed joke (the test took place on April 20 eg 4/20).
ESA is extremely clear that it wants to have minimal impact both on Earth and in space. The plan was to use the reignited engine to bring the upper stage down into Point Nemo in the Pacific. The space agency has a Zero Debris policy, which is difficult to square with yesterday’s mishap. The engine failure meant it had to remain up there. However, the automatic system stopped the release of two payloads that were going to test the reentry. At least there is only one piece of space junk from this launch instead of multiple.
Ariane 6’s launchpad is designed to limit its carbon footprint and reuse the water in the deluge system over and over again. The rocket parts are built in Europe but they are delivered to French Guiana via a partially wind-powered cargo ship, and the hydrogen fuel is produced using solar power and water. This approach reduces the carbon emissions by 80 percent. A more detailed environmental impact analysis will be produced in the coming weeks, but the agency has big goals for the space center and its launches.
“We work a lot on the greening of the site. We really invest a lot and by the end of this decade we will have a 90 percent reduction in the carbon footprint, which is quite enormous,” Dr Aschbacher told IFLScience.
The future of Ariane 6 is not just green; several important scientific missions will reach space thanks to it. From delivering planet-hunting Plato to the first gravitational-wave observatory in space, LISA, this rocket will have a major impact on space and astronomy in the years to come.
Experiencing the roar of the rocket launching was thrilling but it is the culmination of the work of so many people, the challenges, and even the politics that truly tell you that it was indeed a big deal.
Source Link: Ariane 6, Europe’s New Way Into Space, Finally Takes Flight
