Ahead of Ariane 6 launch, what are the other big rockets? (2024)

FAQs

Ahead of Ariane 6 launch, what are the other big rockets? ›

Europe's Ariane and the US Falcon rockets. Also in SpaceX's stable of rockets is the larger and more powerful Falcon Heavy. And it is working on the massive Starship rocket, the most powerful ever built, which plans to carry up to 150 tonnes in its reusable form and 250 tonnes when not reusable.

Ariane 6 is a European expendable launch system developed by ArianeGroup on behalf of the European Space Agency (ESA). It replaces the Ariane 5, as part of the Ariane launch vehicle family.

As they are bigger and more powerful than before, Ariane 6 will be able to carry more satellites than Ariane 5 and heavier ones. But that's not all! The engine in its upper stage is so sophisticated that it can ignite and re-ignite four times.

Ariane 6 comprises three stages: two or four boosters, and a main and upper stage – known together as the central core. The main stage together with the solid rocket boosters propels Ariane 6 in the first phase of flight.

Billionaire Musk has repeatedly criticised Ariane 6 for not being reusable. The European response has been that it would not make economic sense for the rocket to be reusable because it was designed for far fewer launches than the Falcon 9.

Once Vulcan is certified, it will replace the company's Atlas V and Delta IV rockets.

The new Ariane 6 rocket system will be competitive with Elon Musk's SpaceX despite it lagging behind on reusable technology, said André-Hubert Roussel, CEO of Ariane Group, which runs the aerospace project.

" The failure of Ariane 501 was caused by the complete loss of guidance and attitude information 37 seconds after start of the main engine ignition sequence (30 seconds after lift-off). This loss of information was due to specification and design errors in the software of the inertial reference system.

At the same time this particular slip was announced, ESA was asking member states for an additional €230 million for Ariane 6. The increase would have taken the total development cost of Ariane 6 to €3.8 billion. In December 2020, ESA confirmed that it had secured €218 million more for Ariane 6.

The core stage is powered by the liquid-fueled Vulcain 2.1 –an upgraded engine derived from Ariane 5's Vulcain 2– and either two or four P120C strap-on solid boosters, to provide additional thrust at liftoff. The upper stage is powered by the reignitable Vinci engine fueled by cryogenic liquid oxygen and hydrogen.

What fuel does the Ariane 6 use? ›

Vulcain 2.1 is the main stage engine and sits at the bottom of the Ariane 6 core. Calling Vulcain an engine hardly does it justice, this rocket engine uses liquid oxygen and hydrogen as fuel, providing more than 1370 kN of thrust.

Interplanetary mission operations may be considered in four phases: the Launch Phase, the Cruise Phase, the Encounter Phase, and, depending on the state of spacecraft health and mission funding, the Extended Operations Phase.

A three-stage rocket is a rocket which is carried by another, bigger rocket, which is carried by a third, even bigger rocket. Getting from earth surface all the way to the orbit would be too hard (just barely possible, but way too inefficient to make any sense) for a single rocket stage, so we have staging instead.

China is researching the reusability of the Long March 8 system. As of May 2020, the only operational reusable orbital-class launch systems are the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy, the latter of which is based upon the Falcon 9. SpaceX is also developing the fully reusable Starship launch system.

"Penelope was also thought to be unsuitable, and so Ariane was chosen [Ariane is the French version of the Greek mythological character Ariadne, whose famous thread led the way out of the Minotaur's labyrinth]. Nobody could have foreseen that, almost 30 years later, ESA's small launcher would be called Vega.”

When Ariane 6 launches with four boosters, planned for next year, it will be able to deliver 11.5 tonnes into geostationary orbit and 21.6 tonnes into low Earth orbit. It will also be able to deploy constellations of satellites across different orbits thanks to the reusable Vinci engine in its upper stage.

Ariane 6 was commissioned because the cost of producing the Ariane 5 became unsustainable, largely in the face of US competition.

Ariane 6 is planned to launch in July 2024.

NASA's Orion spacecraft is built to take humans farther than they've ever gone before. On Artemis missions, Orion will carry the crew to space, provide emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during the space travel, and provide safe re-entry from deep space return velocities.