Two Spanish ESA technicians confirm that all is well for Ariane 6's first flight
The engineers and technicians at the Kourou space base in French Guiana, 5,850 kilometres from the Spanish coast of Huelva, are going over and over again the procedures for the different operations they have to follow in preparation for the inaugural take-off scheduled for 9 July of the long-awaited new European Ariane 6 launcher.
Speaking by video conference with the head of space transport strategy and institutional flights at the European Space Agency (ESA), the Spaniard Lucía Linares, from Paris, she confirms that, with a dozen days to go until the launch, "all the data we are receiving confirms that everything is going well. I can say that we are ready and we are waiting for take-off with a lot of enthusiasm and also a lot of nerves.
A native of Valencia, Lucía Linares says that at ESA "we are all aware and prudent, because we know what can happen on the first flight of a new space launcher". At the Agency, "we know that we face many risks, but for now, all the lights are green".
The launch window on 9 July opens at 20:00 Spanish time and runs until 23:00. If rain, strong winds or any other meteorological reason prevent the launch, or if any technical anomaly is detected, the flight director will give the order to abort the launch. Until when? "We would try again after 24 or 48 hours", says Linares.
Whether it is one or two days later depends on whether the hydrogen and liquid oxygen tanks that feed the engines "are not full or, on the contrary, if they are", Linares explains.
In the latter case, for safety reasons, both tanks must be emptied and refilled moments before the new take-off date and time. These are tasks that must be carried out with exquisite meticulousness, given the high flammability of both elements.
Liftoff in July... or from September onwards
ESA is responsible for the first mission, and the Spanish company is categorical in stating that "our objective is to launch in July". The teams in French Guiana "have been working night and day for a very long time and from 9 July to the end of the month there are many days, so it has to be done in July". Otherwise, "we would have to move to September... and that's another scenario".
The new disposable and non-recoverable Ariane 6 launcher is the result of the collaboration of 13 countries, including Spain, and the technological contribution of more than 600 European companies, such as Airbus Space Systems of Getafe and Airbus CRISA of Tres Cantos, both near Madrid. It has been conceived and developed under "criteria of modularity and versatility," says Linares, "to be the new vector that guarantees Europe's access to space.
With 30 launch contracts in the pipeline, Ariane 6 incorporates many innovations. One of the main ones is related to the declining demand for satellite transport to position satellites in geostationary orbit. Instead, constellations in low and medium orbits are booming, a market for which the new European launcher and its upper stage structures have been developed.
This is where the Vinci engine, which can be re-ignited up to four times, comes into play, although "on the maiden flight it is only planned to do so three times", explains Matías Fernández Valbuena, also a Spaniard. Its complement is the auxiliary power unit (APU), which provides a small additional thrust that helps the satellites to position themselves in space.
An aeronautical engineer from Leon, Matías Fernández is responsible for the structures that make up the Ariane 6. He clarifies that "all the ground tests have already been carried out". But in the space field there is a moment when "you have to test the systems in the reality of flight, which is where the models of how the launcher works are validated, and that is what we are working on".
Green light after the "wet" dress rehearsal
Ariane 6's first launch into space is considered a qualification mission. Hundreds of sensors on board and on the ground will provide many hundreds of thousands of data points that will report accurately and in real time what is happening on the rocket's trajectory and in its guts. But, "although it does not embark the typical satellite, it is not empty of payloads," says the institutional flight manager.
Ariane 6 carries several small CubeSat satellites "the size of small shoeboxes", one of them from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia. It is also carrying a small satellite dispenser - called RAMI - made by the Galician company UARX Space, located in Nigrán (Pontevedra), several experiments and two fin-guided re-entry platforms for evaluation.
Matías Fernández points out that the satellites "will be positioned in a low circular orbit around the Earth at an altitude of about 580 kilometres", similar to the points where the European navigation satellites Galileo, owned by the European Union, are located.
"A key moment, a very important milestone" in the Ariane 6 launch campaign took place on 20 June, says Linares. On that day, the so-called "wet dress rehearsal" was performed on the Ariane 6 positioned on the launch pad. This consisted of filling the liquid hydrogen and oxygen tanks of the launcher's cryogenic propulsion engines, starting the countdown and observing and measuring the parameters on the ground before liftoff.
ESA lost its space transportation independence when it fell into something of a perfect storm. The invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 broke cooperation with Russia's space agency, Roscosmos, which cancelled Russian Soyuz rocket launches from Guyana.
The second mission of the small Vega-C rocket in December 2022 had technical deficiencies, which have forced it to be grounded until its problems are rectified. The last flight of the Ariane 5 after more than 25 years of service took place in early July 2023. Since then, it has not fired a single shot from French Guiana. But that is all set to change from 9 July.