Ariane 6: Esa postpones first flight to 2024

The new European launch vehicle Ariane 6 will no longer take off in 2023. This works out from a tweet on X by Esa Director General Josef Aschbacher. Aschbacher promises that after further tests of the rocket, he will give a “more precise launch period for 2024”.

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Actually, the Ariane 6 as the successor to the Ariane 5 should already take off in 2020. After delays caused by the corona pandemic, ESA had postponed the launch several times. In October 2022, Esa said that Ariane 6 could start in the last quarter of 2023. Before that, it should have been in April 2023.

In May 2023, the Bremen-based supplier for the Ariane 6 program had already discussed a possible time window from early 2024 to May 2024. Aschbacher had already said at the time that he wanted to announce a target time for the launch of Ariane 6 after the summer in September.

Details probably at the end of September

The Ariane 6 is intended to be the successor to the Ariane 5 launcher, which has been in use since 1996 and which launched satellites for the last time in July 2023. Ariane 6 is also intended to launch satellites for commercial and public clients. The completion of Ariane 6 is urgently expected due to a lack of alternatives. It should be able to bring cargo into space more cheaply than its predecessors. It can also carry a higher payload, roughly matching the carrying capacity of Elon Musk’s space company SpaceX’s Falcon 9.

The original planning envisaged that there should be a continuous transition between Ariane 5 and Ariane 6. But that has now collapsed. Ariane 5 will not launch anymore, Ariane 6 is not ready yet. The possible launch window should only be announced after the long hot firing tests of the rocket engines have been completed. The target date is September 26th. Before that, there will be a public report by the task force on September 4th.

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