Europe’s first Ariane 6 flight achieved most of its goals, but ended prematurely
- by Ars Technica
- Jul 10, 2024
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Ariane 6 launched into orbit, but an upper stage problem kept it from completing the demo flight. #11
Ariane 1 through 4 were closely related designs with a 3-stage, mostly hypergolic, core: version number increments corresponded to progressive evolution through stretches, strap-on booster additions, fairing enlargement, upper stage improvements.
Ariane 5 was, without doubt, a radically new 2-stage design with its Vulcain-powered hydrolox core and pair of large solid boosters (still reusing legacy hypergolic or hydrolox engines for its two upper stage variants, though). The first really new design since Ariane 1, with associated increase of maiden launch failure risk (and fail, it did).
Compared to this big A4->A5 jump, Ariane 6 is back to a relatively limited architectural evolution with most changes being a matter of industrial optimization and technology development (Vega-derived P120 single-segment composite-casing side boosters, half as big as A5's 3-segment steel-casing EAP, allow for the less powerful A62 variant while keeping A64 almost identical in performance to A5). The fact that the new relightable Vinci hydrolox upper stage engine was originally intended for what would have been branded as a new A5 variant is telling.
So this maiden launch's risk level should not really be compared to Ariane 5.
Anyway, glad it mostly worked out! Although what failed is... well, the only new major bit in A6, really.
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