Two rocket launches in livestream: Ariane 6 and Starship to take off again
On Monday evening, Europe's launch vehicle is set to take its first paid payload into space. A few hours later, the Starship could deliver the next spectacle.
The Starship spacecraft on its way to the launch pad
(Image: SpaceX)
Europe's Ariane 6 launcher is scheduled to launch its first commercial payload into space at 17:24 CET on Monday evening, while the eighth flight test of SpaceX's giant Starship rocket is planned for a few hours later. Both rocket launches will be livestreamed, once by Arianespace on YouTube and once by SpaceX on the short message service X. While the launch of Ariane 6 into regular operations years late is hugely important for the operators and Europe's space industry, US billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX can also afford another launch where not everything goes according to plan. The giant rocket has already proven that it can reach orbit, and once it is working reliably, it will have no competition worldwide.
Ready for use years late
Ariane 6 was launched for the first time last summer, four years later than originally planned. As Ariane 5 had already been retired by then, this marked the end of a year in which Europe had no transporter of its own to launch large satellites into space. With the Vega C, the rocket for smaller loads was also unable to take off after a false launch. It too is now operational again. Ariane 6 can now transport up to 11.5 tons of payload into higher orbits and up to 21.6 tons into lower orbits. It is also capable of repeatedly firing the upper stage in space in order to deploy satellites at different positions. On Monday, it will carry a satellite for France's military.
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For the European Space Agency ESA, Ariane 6 is therefore at the cutting edge, but there is criticism of this. SpaceX has been launching satellites with the reusable Falcon 9 for ten years and has thus ushered in a new era in space history, the news agency dpa quotes space expert Martin Tajmar from TU Dresden. Europe is only planning such reusability for the successor to Ariane 7, without a concrete timetable. Meanwhile, SpaceX is testing a completely different caliber with the Starship. The giant rocket is intended to carry hundreds of tons of payload into space and be able to take off again within a very short time after a launch.
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The Starship consists of the "Super Heavy" booster, which is around 70 meters long, and an upper stage that is around 50 meters long. The world's largest rocket is designed in such a way that the spaceship and rocket can be reused after returning to Earth. The rocket is to be used for humanity's return to the moon, but SpaceX promises flights to Mars. In April 2023, a complete Starship took off for the first time, but remained intact for only minutes. Six months later, the second launch attempt was successful before the rocket exploded again. Four more followed in 2024, three of which were successful. During the seventh test flight in mid-January, the upper stage exploded a few minutes after take-off.
Several changes were made to the rocket before the launch scheduled for 0:30 a.m. CET, SpaceX now explains. The plan is for the Starship to fly the same route that was planned or completed during the previous tests. This means that the upper stage will reach the Indian Ocean. On the way there, it will deploy four dummies that are similar in size and weight to the next-generation Starlink satellites. They will then burn up. After the launch, the booster is to be recovered from the launch pad, but if the conditions for this are not met, it will be guided into the Gulf of Mexico. Elon Musk's company calls this the "Gulf of America", of course.
(mho)
