PARIS: The European Space Agency’s Ariane 6 rocket successfully completed a dress rehearsal on Thursday, test-firing its engine in preparation for the first voyage scheduled for 2024.
The final results of the ignition test, which involved firing up the Vulcain 2.1 engine and running it for more than 7 minutes, will not be released until 30 November, pending a full analysis.
But manufacturer ArianeGroup already termed the rehearsal “successfully completed”, according to AFP.
The hot-fire test at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana simulated a full launch sequence and thus validated the whole flight phase of Ariane 6’s core stage, it said in a press release after Thursday’s rehearsal.
ArianeGroup CEO Martin Sion commended the team for the “real industrial feat”, but said that “a few additional tests”, especially fault tolerance, were still required before the rocket was ready for launch.
Rocket’s predecessor
The rocket’s workhorse predecessor, the Ariane Five, blasted off for the last time in July after twenty-seven years of launches.
With the smaller Vega C grounded following a launch failure in December and Russia halting space cooperation in response to Ukraine resrictions, the ESA has been left without an independent way to space until it can get the Ariane VI ready.
The launcher market, meanwhile, has been increasingly dominated by billionaire Elon Musk’s US company SpaceX.
Director General of the ESA Josef Aschbacher said that this test is an important milestone that comes after years of design, planning, preparation, construction and hard work by some of very best space engineers in Europe.
It said that they are back on track to re-establish Europe’s autonomous access to space.”
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