Europe completes 1st rollout of Ariane 6 mobile launch gantry
The mobile launch gantry that Europe will use for its new Ariane 6 rocket successfully completed its first rollout tests last week.
This gantry is the equivalent of NASA’s VAB building. Within this gantry they will assemble Ariane 6 vertically, then roll the gantry back for launch.
Assembling a rocket vertically I think is more costly, but it also makes it possible for the rocket to launch payloads that must be installed in this manner. Thus, Ariane 6 will have this selling point over rockets like the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy, which are assembled horizontally.
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The mobile launch gantry that Europe will use for its new Ariane 6 rocket successfully completed its first rollout tests last week.
This gantry is the equivalent of NASA’s VAB building. Within this gantry they will assemble Ariane 6 vertically, then roll the gantry back for launch.
Assembling a rocket vertically I think is more costly, but it also makes it possible for the rocket to launch payloads that must be installed in this manner. Thus, Ariane 6 will have this selling point over rockets like the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy, which are assembled horizontally.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
This mobile gantry is not directly comparable to the VAB at KSC because it moves on rails to and from the fixed Ariane 6 launch mount while the VAB is fixed in position. The VAB is also much larger and can support simultaneous stacking of four different vehicles. Rockets are assembled within VAB atop mobile launch platforms that are moved, as a unit with the rockets they support, to and from the pad by the huge crawler-transporters.
The most similar pieces of U.S. space launch infrastructure are the Mobile Service Towers at Vandenberg AFB’s SLC-3E, used to support Atlas V launches, and at SLC-6, used to support Delta IV launches including the triple-core Delta IV Heavy. As with Araine 6 and its gantry, these structures are on rails and roll over the fixed launch mount while the vehicles are being vertically assembled, then roll back out of the way near launch time.