ESA delays first Ariane-6 launch to late in 2023
The European Space Agency has once again delayed the first Ariane-6 launch, shifting it to the fourth quarter of 2023.
Even so, officials warned that this is merely “a planned date,” and that static fire tests of both the first stage and second stage must first be completed before the launch can go forward.
Ariane-6 was initially supposed to begin launching in 2020, putting it three years behind schedule. Furthermore, it has struggled to obtain customers, as it is entirely expendable and thus expensive and not competitive with SpaceX’s Falcon 9.
Since Ariane-6 is delayed and the Ariane-5 rocket’s has only a few launches left before retirement, ESA officials also noted that it has now been forced to buy two launches from SpaceX.
The launches include the Euclid space telescope and the Hera probe, a follow-up mission to NASA’s DART spacecraft which last month succeeded in altering the path of a moonlet in the first test of a future planetary defence system. “The member states have decided that Euclid and Hera are proposed to be launched on Falcon 9,” ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher told reporters after a meeting of the 22-nation agency’s ministerial council.
The launches will take place in 2023 and 2024 respectively.
The irony is that ESA is probably going to save a lot of money launching with the Falcon 9, rather than its own Ariane-6. In fact, I would not be surprised if the total SpaceX price for both launches equals one Ariane-6 launch. Furthermore, SpaceX gets this business because its own American competitors, ULA and Blue Origin, have also failed to get their new rockets flying on time.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
The European Space Agency has once again delayed the first Ariane-6 launch, shifting it to the fourth quarter of 2023.
Even so, officials warned that this is merely “a planned date,” and that static fire tests of both the first stage and second stage must first be completed before the launch can go forward.
Ariane-6 was initially supposed to begin launching in 2020, putting it three years behind schedule. Furthermore, it has struggled to obtain customers, as it is entirely expendable and thus expensive and not competitive with SpaceX’s Falcon 9.
Since Ariane-6 is delayed and the Ariane-5 rocket’s has only a few launches left before retirement, ESA officials also noted that it has now been forced to buy two launches from SpaceX.
The launches include the Euclid space telescope and the Hera probe, a follow-up mission to NASA’s DART spacecraft which last month succeeded in altering the path of a moonlet in the first test of a future planetary defence system. “The member states have decided that Euclid and Hera are proposed to be launched on Falcon 9,” ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher told reporters after a meeting of the 22-nation agency’s ministerial council.
The launches will take place in 2023 and 2024 respectively.
The irony is that ESA is probably going to save a lot of money launching with the Falcon 9, rather than its own Ariane-6. In fact, I would not be surprised if the total SpaceX price for both launches equals one Ariane-6 launch. Furthermore, SpaceX gets this business because its own American competitors, ULA and Blue Origin, have also failed to get their new rockets flying on time.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
So am I correct to conclude that the non-reusable Ariane-6 will not substantially out-perform the venerable F9, since its intended initial payloads now will be launched by the F9? Why don’t they just shovel their taxpayers’ money into a hole in the ground?!
Per Elon, this is also the record of the most flights in one year by a booster type. (Soyuz-U did 47 in 1979).
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1583133885696987136
And we still have 10 or so launches to go in all likelyhood.
Elon could really tick some people off just by designing a competitor engine to the Blue Origin BE-4.
He could actually have it operational and ready for sale before BO does.
But that would put BO out of business and he might not want that yet.
pzatchok, I am in no position to either dispute or support your contention, but I would be interested in knowing more about your assumptions. Are there significantly simpler design features in the BE-4 compared to Raptor? Does SpaceX have a workforce with greater skills than BO? Honestly, I’d like to know how you reached this conclusion, which I do not necessarily disagree with – I just don’t know.
It has nothing to do with simpler or cheaper.
They obviously do not want to pay Space X to carry their payloads. For any price. What payload can’t a Falcon Heavy lift?
But since he is not ever going to sell his present engines to competitors he would need to make a new one.
A new engine that does exactly what the customer wants. Obviously the customer wants to use something throw away and bolts right into and replaces what they already have
The real reason is that the government politicians do not want to let any of his competitors go out of business. They need the jobs in their areas. Also with more companies in the mix the politicians get more chances at a better draw from the donation and gift basket.
Add in all the politicians who either have direct investments in or are invested in the finance companies who are financing the other launch companies.
How many invested in the drug companies a week before they were approved for the Covid vax and you had no idea?
Would somebody please pry the ESA’s eyes open and show them SLS?
Stop while you can, you’re wasting a ton, and what you make has no value.