{"id":208174,"date":"2025-06-23T17:08:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-23T17:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/208174\/"},"modified":"2025-06-23T17:08:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T17:08:09","slug":"increase-in-ariane-6-launch-cadence-could-take-several-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/208174\/","title":{"rendered":"Increase in Ariane 6 launch cadence could take several years"},"content":{"rendered":"

PARIS \u2014 While Arianespace is committed to moving to its peak launch rate of the Ariane 6 \u201cas soon as possible,\u201d it may take several years for the company to reach that cadence.<\/p>\n

During a panel at the Paris Air Show June 17, David Cavaillol\u00e8s, chief executive of Arianespace, emphasized his desire to ramp up launches of the Ariane 6, which has performed two launches to date.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to go to 10 launches per year for Ariane 6 as soon as possible,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s twice as more as for Ariane 5, so it\u2019s a big industrial change.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the inaugural launch of Ariane 6 last July, Arianespace launched the second Ariane 6 in March<\/a>, placing a French reconnaissance satellite into orbit. Cavaillol\u00e8s reiterated earlier plans to conduct four more Ariane 6 launches through the end of the year<\/a>, including the first launch of the more powerful Ariane 64 variant with four solid-rocket boosters.<\/p>\n

However, he declined to offer a specific timeline for increasing launch cadence to 10 per year. \u201cEverybody is extremely motivated, but we want to do it step by step,\u201d he said. \u201cFirst we have to deliver on \u201925 and this is a big challenge, so we focus on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNext year, of course, we will do more,\u201d he said, but suggested it might be a few years until it reaches its goal of \u201ccadence 10,\u201d or 10 launches per year. \u201cIn \u201929, when we start deploying IRIS\u00b2, which is a milestone program, we\u2019ll be more than for sure at cadence 10.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arianespace expects to perform 13 Ariane 64 launches in 2029 and 2030 for IRIS\u00b2<\/a>, the European broadband secure connectivity constellation. However, before that it has a contract with Amazon for 18 Ariane 64 launches of its Project Kuiper broadband satellites. With Amazon facing looming regulatory deadlines for deploying that constellation, Arianespace is under pressure to increase the Ariane 6 launch rate.<\/p>\n

Amazon is the largest customer in the Ariane 6 backlog, which includes more than 30 launches. \u201cIt means that we have years and years of activity in front of us,\u201d Cavaillol\u00e8s said of that backlog. He said the company expected to announce more launch contracts in the coming weeks and months.<\/p>\n

That interest in Ariane 6 is coming from both government and commercial customers. \u201cWe see a lot of states, a lot of space agencies, wanting to develop their own space infrastructure because they don\u2019t want to rely on other people,\u201d he said. \u201cFor us, of course, this is an opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Commercial operators, he added, \u201ctell me that the current situation, the dependency on one actor \u2014 the situation of, let\u2019s say, hegemony \u2014 is a big threat to them. It\u2019s absolutely unacceptable to rely on only one provider,\u201d a veiled reference to SpaceX. \u201cFor this reason, they want us to succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n

That makes the first Ariane 64 launch critical for the company, given that vehicle\u2019s use for both Kuiper and IRIS\u00b2. \u201cWe are preparing this launch based on the lessons learned from the Ariane 62 launch,\u201d said Martin Sion, chief executive of ArianeGroup, the prime contractor for the Ariane 6, on the same panel.<\/p>\n

He said he expected the first Ariane 64 launch in a few months, although some industry sources say that the launch could slip into early 2026. Cavaillol\u00e8s also committed to a first Ariane 64 launch before the end of the year.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the teams here and in Kourou, and everywhere in the supply chain,\u201d he said, \u201care doing the maximum to make this happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PARIS \u2014 While Arianespace is committed to moving to its peak launch rate of the Ariane 6 \u201cas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":208175,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[83477,83478,70,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-208174","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-ariane-6","9":"tag-arianespace","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114733783724283362","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208174\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}