European CommissionJul 10, 2024

👨‍🚀🚀 3... 2... 1... Liftoff!

Last night, Europe's new heavy-lift rocket, #Ariane6, successfully made its inaugural flight.

Ariane 6 can launch both heavy and light payloads to a wide range of orbits for applications such as Earth observation, telecommunication, meteorology, science and navigation.

It is a key step towards secure and autonomous 🇪🇺 access to #space.

Congratulations to the teams at European Space Agency, National Centre for Space Studies, Arianespace on this success!

📷© ESA

Show threadTim Ward ⭐🇪🇺🔶 #FBPEJul 10, 2024
@EUCommission Will it be commercially competitive against reusable rockets without any taxpayer subsidy?
Show threadgalarJul 10, 2024
@TimWardCam @EUCommission While that would be good to have, I think it's just one of the arguments. Another one might be managing strategic dependency. When Elon giveth, Elon might also taketh away when you most need it. Better to have own if possible.
Show threadTim Ward ⭐🇪🇺🔶 #FBPEJul 10, 2024
@galar @EUCommission Sure, but why design a new rocket for 2024 that's single use and disposable?
Show threadgalarJul 10, 2024
@TimWardCam @EUCommission Thats a good question and I do not have an answer.
Show threademmatonkinJul 10, 2024

@galar @TimWardCam @EUCommission
There are articles about this. They say it makes no sense economically in this instance given the numbers: https://www.space.com/europe-ariane-6-rocket-debut-launch#:~:text=But%20the%20Ariane%206%2C%20like,future%2C%20ESA%20officials%20have%20said.

They also say they are developing projects such as Maia and Themis with reusability in mind:
https://spacenews.com/europe-aims-to-end-space-access-crisis-with-ariane-6s-inaugural-launch/

So reusability is on their minds, but not for this application or at least not right now.

Europe's new Ariane 6 rocket launches on long-awaited debut mission (video)

At long last, the Ariane 6 has left the ground.

Space
Show threadgalar
@emmatonkin @TimWardCam @EUCommission Thanks for this. I assumed there was a reason.
Jul 10, 2024 at 9:29pmWeb