Europe has finally regained its independent access to space.
With the maiden flight of the Ariane 6 rocket on Tuesday, the continent restored its sovereign launch capacity.
The Ariane 6, designed to put satellites into orbit, launched at 16:00 local time (21:00 CEST) from the European spaceport in French Guiana.
The rocket will now fly into space with a load of satellites and experiments. After the cargo has been released, the upper stage of the Ariane 6 will burn up to reduce space debris.
TNW Conference 2025 – Back to NDSM on June 19-20, 2025 – Save the date!
Having concluded our incredible 2024 edition, we are excited to announce our return to Amsterdam NDSM in 2025. Register now!
The aim of the demonstration mission is to prove the performance of the launch vehicle. close a dark chapter for the European Space Agency (ESA).
Since the Ariane 5 was decommissioned last July, Europe has relied on Elon Musk's SpaceX to transport satellites into orbit.
Thierry Breton, EU Commissioner for the Internal Market, described the problem as an “unprecedented crisis”. The arrival of Ariane 6 will solve this crisis.
Nevertheless, doubts about the rocket still remain.
The future of Ariane 6
With a whopping four billion euros in costs and a four-year delay, the development of Ariane 6 caused controversy.
Critics have also questioned the launch vehicle's disposable design. They include Musk, whose SpaceX rockets save costs and lead time by reusing their boosters.
Musk has advised competitors to take a similar path.
“They have to fully embrace reusability, otherwise they will be completely uncompetitive,” he said last July. “Rockets are no different from other transport technologies, they are just more difficult to make reusable.
“Nobody would buy a plane, car or bicycle that would only be used once! Just for the return trip you would have to lug another car around.”
The ESA then argued that a reusable design would be too expensive.
“Our launch needs are so small that it wouldn't make economic sense,” Toni Tolker-Nielsen, the agency's director of space transportation, told SpaceNews in June.
For now, the ESA can at least be happy about renewed access to space. The agency is planning nine to ten Ariane 6 launches per year.
