A historic day...the successful flight of the Ariane 6 spacecraft into space

A historic day...the successful flight of the Ariane 6 spacecraft into space

 The Ariane 6 spacecraft placed into orbit on Tuesday the small satellites it carried into space, one hour and six minutes after it took off from the Kourou Space Center in French Guiana, crowning the success of the first flight of the European rocket.

Commenting on the success of the mission, ESA Director General Joseph Aschbacher said: “This is a historic day for the European Space Agency and for Europe.” With this success, Europe regains its independence in the field of space travel.

But for this success to be considered complete, it is necessary to wait for the upper layer of the vehicle to return from the atmosphere and land in the Pacific Ocean, which is supposed to happen approximately three hours after the launch.

The success of the mission of this giant 56-meter rocket represents Europe's return to the space sector, according to the head of space transportation at the European Space Agency, Tony Tolker-Nielsen. On its first flight, the Ariane 6 spacecraft carried 11 small university satellites, equipment for various experiments, as well as two capsules to re-enter the atmosphere.

Since the last flight of the Ariane 5 spacecraft a year ago, the Europeans have no longer been able to put a satellite into orbit on their own: since the invasion of Ukraine, they have no longer had access to Russian Soyuz rockets, and the Vega-C rocket has been withdrawn from service since the end of 2022 after an accident.