WASHINGTON — An Ariane 6 successfully launched a European weather satellite Aug. 27 on the rocket’s first mission to geostationary orbit.
The Ariane 62 lifted off from the European spaceport at Kourou, French Guiana, at 4:11 p.m. Eastern. The rocket’s upper stage deployed its payload, the MTG-I2 weather satellite, into a geostationary transfer orbit 36 minutes later.
MTG-I2, built by Thales Alenia Space, is the third satellite in the Meteosat Third Generation program of weather satellites developed by the European Space Agency and Eumetsat. It joins MTG-I1, launched in 2022 on an Ariane 5, and MTG-S1, launched in 2025 on a Falcon 9.
This latest satellite, like MTG-I1, carries a high-resolution imager to support weather forecasting. However, while MTG-I1 takes a full-disk image of the Earth every 10 minutes, MTG-I2 will take images of Europe and North Africa every 2.5 minutes. MTG-S1 carries atmospheric sounding instruments.
“For us, the upcoming launch of the MTG-I2 satellite is a really important step forward for weather monitoring across Europe,” said Thomas Blackmore, science manager for space data products and systems at the United Kingdom Met Office, during a prelaunch briefing, citing the high-frequency images it will provide. “For forecasters, MTG-I2 is a bit like moving from a series of snapshots to having something that’s much closer to a live video stream from space.”
The satellite, weighing 3.8 tons at launch, will operate from 9 degrees east in GEO. The spacecraft will take 10 to 12 days to reach that slot in GEO from its transfer orbit, said James Champion, MTG project manager at ESA, at the briefing.
It will still take several months to commission the satellite before it enters service. Susanne Dieterle, MTG system manager at Eumetsat, said it took four months to get the first image from MTG-I1. Because MTG-I2 is the same design, she said, “we intend to do it quicker.”
MTG-I2 completes the first trio of satellites for the system. A second set of three satellites is being built now to be placed into storage in the next few years, said Champion. They would launch around the mid-2030s unless they are needed earlier to replace a failed satellite.
The launch was the fourth so far this year of the Ariane 6, after three launches of Amazon Leo satellites in February, April and June. It was the ninth flight of the rocket overall, dating back to its inaugural flight in July 2024.
However, this mission was the first Ariane 6 flight to carry a payload to GEO, as previous missions carried satellites bound for low or medium Earth orbits. While the rocket’s predecessor, the Ariane 5, frequently launched GEO missions, demand for GEO communications satellites has dropped because of shifting demand and the rise of LEO constellations.
Delays in the development of Ariane 6 led Eumetsat to move MTG-S1 from Ariane 6 to Falcon 9 in 2024. Eumetsat called that move driven by “exceptional circumstances” and later reaffirmed its use of European launchers such as Ariane 6 for future spacecraft.
“With its first mission to geostationary transfer orbit, Ariane 6 has once again demonstrated its versatility and precision,” said Christophe Bruneau, chief executive of ArianeGroup, the prime contractor for Ariane 6, in a statement after the launch. “This latest success confirms the launcher’s ability to meet the requirements of Europe’s most strategic space programs.”
Arianespace, which operates Ariane 6, has not disclosed the date or customer of the vehicle’s next launch. While the company is currently on a pace of six launches this year, a company executive said at the prelaunch briefing that the company would do more.
“The target for the year remains unchanged. We target seven to eight Ariane 6 launches before the end of the year,” said Caroline Arnoux, head of the Ariane business unit at Arianespace. The company plans to increase its launch rate to nine to 10 in 2027, she added.
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