Will there be an Ariane-6 deposited at Christmas in the slippers of the European Space Agency (ESA)? The question comes up with more and more insistence, as the last flight of Ariane-5 approaches, scheduled for June 16 at the Guiana Space Center in Kourou.
After this date, Europe will no longer have access to space: its small Vega-C rocket is grounded after the failure of its second mission, in December 2022; since the start of the war in Ukraine, Arianespace has had to suspend take-offs from the Russian Soyuz launcher it operated in Kourou; finally, Ariane-6, whose maiden flight should have taken place in mid-2020, has still not flown and is now three years late. First consequence: the ESA had to resolve to turn to the American company SpaceX, of Elon Musk, to launch its scientific mission Euclid, at the beginning of July.
Expectations are therefore all the more pressing around the Ariane-6 program and, Thursday, June 8, the highest officials met at the Mureaux factory (Yvelines), where ArianeGroup manufactures the main stage of the future rocket. , in order to take stock. In attendance were the Director General of ESA, Josef Aschbacher, the President of the National Center for Space Studies (CNES, which manages the Kourou base), Philippe Baptiste, the brand new Executive Chairman of ArianeGroup, Martin Sion, and the executive chairman of Arianespace (which markets the rocket), Stéphane Israel.
Final delicate steps
Without sounding ominous, the tone of the four men was serious, all acknowledging that they felt the pressure. “What is quite difficult today is that we no longer have the Soyuz at our disposal” as a backup pitcher, conceded Philippe Baptiste, before adding: “This is why we need Ariane-6 quickly for institutional missions” from Europe.
In front of the press, Josef Aschbacher began his intervention by recalling that several tests still had to be carried out in June and during the summer. In theory, the final assembly of the launcher, whose upper stage is built in Germany, will take place in November in Kourou. The director general of ESA very quickly anticipated the crucial question on the date of the first flight of Ariane-6. Would it, as previously announced, be carried out before the end of the year?
Joseph Aschbacher cautiously explained that it would first be necessary to analyze the results of the “critical tests that will take place this summer. Will this inaugural flight take place in 2023 or 2024? We don’t want to speculate. These tests will determine the take-off date. » This should therefore be specified at the start of the school year in September. Before recalling how delicate the final stages of developing a rocket are (during its first flight, Ariane-5 had exploded), Joseph Aschbacher specified that “the teams took their weekends and public holidays to move forward”. A way to recognize how tight the schedule is.
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