WASHINGTON – Europe’s Ariane 6 rocket has completed a refueling test and countdown rehearsal, marking the last major milestone before its inaugural launch in July.
The European Space Agency said on June 21 that the agency and its partners had completed a wet dress rehearsal at the launch site in French Guiana the day before. During the test, the rocket was charged with liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen propellants and performed a countdown that stopped just before the engine ignited.
“The wet dress rehearsal is the very last milestone before launch,” Guy Pilchen, project manager of the Ariane 6 launch vehicle at ESA, said in a statement. The test, common for new launch vehicles, will allow vehicle teams to “refine the delicate operations required up to launch, using for the first time the actual flight hardware and software of the real rocket,” he noted on.
The test was originally scheduled for June 18, but was postponed by two days. ESA officials said at a June 19 briefing after an ESA Council meeting that the slip was not related to any major problems and would not delay the vehicle’s inaugural launch, which had been announced earlier this month on July 9.
“Preparations for the inaugural flight are progressing really well,” ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher said during that briefing. That included resolving remaining issues from a vehicle qualification review completed June 14 and installing the payload and fairing on the rocket’s upper stage on the same day.
“There is no showstopper, so everything is going nominally, but of course there is still a lot of work to be done towards the inaugural flight,” he said.
The ESA statement on the completion of the wet dress rehearsal added that analysis of its data would continue until June 26. ESA has also scheduled a series of media briefings on June 25 to discuss launch preparations.
Ariane 6 is crucial to ESA’s efforts to end a ‘launch crisis’ that has temporarily deprived Europe of independent access to space. Several factors have caused the crisis, such as delays in the development of the Ariane 6, which delayed its introduction after the last launch of the Ariane 5 almost a year ago, problems with the Vega C rocket that has been carrying the vehicle for a year defect set aside six months ago, and the loss of access to the Soyuz rocket after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine more than two years ago.
ESA announced an agreement for a “stabilized operation” of Ariane 6 and Vega C in November 2023, which included 340 million euros ($364 million) per year in financial support for Ariane 6. That agreement requires the companies developing the Ariane 6 to reduce their production costs. costs by 11%.
“We are on track for that,” Aschbacher said during the briefing on that reduction. “Many discussions have taken place with some of the key suppliers,” he added, with “good progress being made in recent days.”
“We are making steady progress,” said Toni Tolker-Nielsen, ESA’s space director, of those cost savings. He said an unnamed German partner for the vehicle had agreed to make that price reduction, “so that’s a big step forward.”
The November 2023 agreement also called for transferring responsibility for Vega C launch services from Arianespace to Avio, the prime contractor for the rocket. Avio executives said last month that discussions about that transfer were still ongoing.
Aschbacher said ESA had been called in in recent weeks to mediate negotiations between the two companies on the agreement to transfer the Vega C business at the request of one of the companies. “The conditions for the transfer of Vega C from Arianespace to Avio are clear,” he said. “We have made tremendous progress and are, I would say, very close to closing the outstandings.” He did not elaborate on the issues requiring ESA mediation.
The ESA Council was scheduled to adopt a resolution approving this transfer at its meeting that concluded June 19, but Aschbacher said the council will instead hold a separate meeting toward the end of the month to complete the transfer.