2023-11-24 00:14:00
“The long-term firing test of the Ariane 6 launcher on its launch pad at the Guiana Space Center took place successfully,” said ArianeGroup, the manufacturer of Ariane 6, in a press release following the test. .
The ignition of the Vulcain 2.1 engine, which lasted approximately eight minutes, “made it possible to validate the entire flight phase of the main stage of Ariane 6 by simulating a complete launch timeline,” according to ArianeGroup.
“The teams have now completed each stage of the launcher’s flight without it leaving Earth,” said Josef Aschbacher, director general of the European Space Agency (ESA).
This step, presented as crucial, “brings us a little closer to the inaugural flight of Ariane 6,” said the executive president of ArianeGroup, Martin Sion.
Additional tests remain to be carried out before the first flight, in particular to “demonstrate tolerance to cases of failure”, he specified.
Considered a major step in the Ariane 6 qualification campaign, the success of this test determines the setting of a date for the inaugural launch of the launcher, scheduled for 2024.
Initially planned for 2020, the first flight of Ariane 6, designed to face competition from the American launcher Space X, has been postponed several times due to the Covid-19 pandemic and development difficulties.
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