It is the coincidences of the calendar that hurt. On June 13, the boss of the European Space Agency Josef Aschbacher formalized in an interview with the BBC the new delay of Ariane 6: the first flight of the European launcher, until then hoped for the end of 2022, is now scheduled for 2023. The same day, the great Californian rival SpaceX obtained from the American air regulator, the FAA, a first highly anticipated green light for the first orbital flights of its giant Starship/Super Heavy launcher, a nearly 120-meter rocket designed for Mars missions. After an investigation of several months, the FAA still conditioned this authorization to the implementation of 75 environmental protection measures within the launch pad of Boca Chica (Texas) of SpaceX. Commitments that Elon Musk’s group should not have too much trouble keeping.
SpaceX laughing, space Europe crying? The difference in dynamics is indeed striking. Since the start of the year, the Californian champion has fired 26 shots from his Falcon 9 reusable launcher, or one per week. Arianespace had only made one launch, that of a Russian Soyuz in February. A second launch, the first Ariane 5 launch of the year, was scheduled for June 22. This snail’s pace is easily explained: Europe has almost no more launchers to fire. Ariadne 6? It is three years behind its initial schedule. Ariadne 5? At the end of its life, it is no longer produced and its last five launches are sold out. As for the Russian Soyuz launcher, long fired from Guyana, it is no longer available since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Maximum pressure
Several satellite operators, customers of Arianespace, thus find themselves in the dark. The same situation for the French army, whose CSO-3 spy satellite, which was to be launched at the end of 2022, is for the moment grounded, awaiting an available rocket. “We have 11 launches to reset,” said Arianespace boss Stéphane Israel during the Paris Air Forum on June 7.
The entry into service of Ariane 6 seems all the more urgent since the European launcher won a giant order for 18 launches for Amazon’s Kuiper satellite constellation on April 5. “There is no more margin, nor plan B: any failure of the first shot would be catastrophic”, summarizes Arthur Sauzay, author of several reports on Europe in space for the Institut Montaigne.
The pressure is therefore maximum on Ariane-Group, prime contractor for Ariane 6. The Franco-German industrialist must conduct two test campaigns of capital importance simultaneously: the so-called “combined” tests of an Ariane 6 on its launch pad in Kourou, planned for the next few weeks; and the fire tests of the upper stage of the rocket, on the site of the DLR (the German space agency) in Lampoldshausen, north of Stuttgart. These, scheduled for early 2021, have still not started.