The Ariane-6 rocket passes a crucial stage before a first flight

This step, presented as crucial, “brings us a little closer to the inaugural flight of Ariane-6”, welcomed the executive president of ArianeGroup, Martin Sion. The European Ariane-6 rocket underwent a “large-scale” dress rehearsal on Thursday in Kourou, Guyana, in preparation for its first flight, scheduled for 2024, with the successful firing of the Vulcain 2.1 engine of the main stage of the launcher.

“The long-term firing test of the Ariane-6 launcher on its launch pad at the Guiana space center was carried out successfully,” ArianeGroup, the manufacturer of Ariane-6, said in a press release at the end. of 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 every stage of the launcher’s flight without it leaving Earth,” underlined Josef Aschbacher, Director General of the European Space Agency (ESA). Additional tests remain to be carried out before the first flight, in particular to “demonstrate tolerance to cases of failure”, he said.

Full results November 30

However, the full results of Thursday’s test will not be communicated before November 30, after analysis of all parameters. “The fundamental question will be to say whether we need to repeat the test,” Pier Domenico Resta, responsible for engineering the Ariane-6 launch system at ESA, explained to Agence France-Presse.

The firing of the Vulcain 2.1 engine began around 9:30 p.m. Paris time, a few minutes behind schedule due to a “slight” anomaly, which was corrected by the teams on site, said the ‘ESA.

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. The test was initially scheduled to take place on October 3, but it had to be postponed after the detection of an anomaly on the hydraulic circuit of the system which controls the orientation of the nozzle of the main stage engine.

Initially scheduled for 2020, the first flight of Ariane-6, designed to face competition from the American launcher SpaceX, has been postponed several times due to the Covid-19 pandemic and development difficulties.