While the copy dedicated to the tests is finally completed in Guiana Space CenterESA, ArianeGroup and CNES confirmed last night a new major delay for the inaugural launch, hoped for in the last quarter of 2023. A blow for the future European flagship after 8 years of development.
Just before the important ministerial meeting of ESA, the launcher crisis continues.
The emergency awaits
With 29 copies already in the order book, Ariane 6 is eagerly awaited. When the ESA and the alliance between Airbus and Safran (which has since become ArianeGroup) reached an agreement at the end of 2014, the rocket was to enter service in the summer of 2020. Of course, manufacturers and customers had integrated some margins, by providing for a period of three years between the maiden launch of Ariane 6 and the retirement of its big sister Ariane 5. Alas, that will not have been enough.
There are only three Ariane 5 launches left (including one in December), and ESA announced last night through the voice of its director Josef Aschbacher that the new launcher would not take off before the last quarter of 2023, at the earliest. A very bad surprise for the entire sector, even though several private and governmental authorities are looking for solutions to send their satellites into orbit.
The long ground tests
Ariane 6 is therefore another year behind schedule, in just one year. A delay which is explained, according to André-Hubert Roussel (the executive chairman of ArianeGroup) by various external parameters such as the impact of the Covid crisis or several technical difficulties noted for the combined trials, which are in progress. Indeed for a few days the first Ariane 6 “complete” intended for ground tests, is visible at the Center Spatial Guyanais. A complex assembly, which will give way in the weeks to come to the tests of the electrical interfaces, then of the fluids between the edge and the ground, Ariane 6 and its launch facilities.
First stage firing tests, with simulated countdowns and tank fills will take place this winter. In parallel, the upper stage will continue the Vinci engine ignitions on the test platform in Germany at Lampoldshausen. With the hope of completing the two campaigns in the first or second quarter next… In order to be able to send the first flying example to Guyana.
Big challenges lie ahead for 2023
After three years of postponements, the ESA director was cautious, arguing that there were still many tests to be carried out before being confident and giving a date for the inaugural launch. This suggests, within a year, that the take-off date could even flirt with 2024! A disaster on several fronts. First of all, a budget extension will be needed to cover the costs of these delays. Then, the end of Ariane 5’s career in the first half of 2023 should have been accompanied by a transition of the teams to Ariane 6. Without a launcher, will these employees be on technical unemployment? What about payloads?
The Galileo satellites, by 2024, will form a nice collection of containers lined up waiting for take-off, without forgetting the military, scientific and even the Kuiper satellites, highlighted this year in the “contract of the century” at Arianespace. It will be necessary to hope that customers will all be as patient in the face of the challenge of another year of delay… If all goes well.
Because each time the date of the inaugural launch is pushed back, failure is less and less of an option. The crisis will continue: in mid-2023, Vega-C will be the only launcher in operation in Europe…
Source : space news
6