Europe’s new Ariane 6 rocket to launch June 15-July 31, 2024 By Reuters

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<span>© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A worker of Ariane Group stands in front of a Ariane 6 rocket’s Vulcain 2.1 engine, prior to the visit of French President Emmanuel Macron, in Vernon, France January 12, 2021. Christophe Ena/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo</span><br />
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<p>PARIS (Reuters) – Europe’s new Ariane 6 rocket will stage an inaugural flight between June 15 and July 31 in 2024, the European Space Agency said on Thursday.</p>
<p>The keenly awaited window for the first test flight came after a test model of the new rocket passed a key long-firing engine test in French Guiana last week.</p>
<p>ESA nations agreed in 2014 to develop Ariane 6 in response to growing competition in the commercial launch market but its arrival, originally due in 2020, has been repeatedly delayed.</p>
<p>“I am really happy to make this announcement today because it shows that we are on the good track to flight access to space for Europe,” ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher told a news conference.</p>
<p>The maiden flight will carry some smaller satellites, including two from NASA, but since it is still considered a test flight, it will not carry “a major payload”, ESA added.</p>
<p>The ESA will carry out a few additional tests before the launch to make sure the design is “fault tolerant”.</p>
<p>The ESA said it planned a second flight by the end of 2024 and would ramp up further in 2025 to reach a target of 9-10 flights per year.</p>
<p>The launcher is being developed by ArianeGroup, a joint venture between Airbus and <span itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Corporation"><span itemprop="name"> Safran </span></span> (EPA:), in order to better compete with U.S. private launch provider SpaceX.</p>
<p>Its predecessor, Ariane 5, flew for the last time in July and the smaller Vega C remains grounded following a failure in December last year, leaving Europe without independent access to space. Russia blocked European use of its Soyuz rockets last year in response to Western sanctions over Ukraine.</p>
<p>Last week’s test at the European spaceport in French Guiana involved igniting the core-stage Vulcain 2.1 engine and then running it for seven minutes, which is about the time it would take for the launcher to reach space.</p>
<p>Aschbacher said last month he hoped to be able to announce a launch window for an inaugural flight to be held in 2024, depending on the results of the engine test. </p>
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<br /><a href="https://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/europes-new-ariane-6-rocket-to-launch-between-june-15july-31-2024-3246514">Source link </a></p><p>The post <a href="https://forextraderhub.com/europes-new-ariane-6-rocket-to-launch-june-15-july-31-2024-by-reuters.html">Europe’s new Ariane 6 rocket to launch June 15-July 31, 2024 By Reuters</a> first appeared on <a href="https://forextraderhub.com">Forex Trader Hub</a>.</p>