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Ariane 6 Launcher

Ariane 6 is a launcher developed by ArianeGroup, under the authority of the European Space Agency, whose maiden launch, scheduled for 2020, has been postponed to 2022 also due to development delays following the coronavirus pandemic. When development is completed, it will be the newest launcher in the Ariane family of launchers.

The participating states are: Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Romania, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

Ariane 6 is one of the main European launchers to reach geostationary or low earth orbit.

Two versions of the rocket were built: the ’64’ model, with more power, four solid propellant side boosters and a total weight of around 860 tonnes, and the ’62’ model, much lighter (around 530 tonnes), less power and only two side boosters.

In this way, Ariane 6 will be able to be used for a wide variety of missions and meet multiple requirements.

The propulsion components of Ariane 6 are:

• solid-propellant boosters, 2 P120Cs for the A62 version and 4 for the A64 version. The P120Cs will be shared with the Vega C light launcher.
• cryogenic fuel main stage (liquid hydrogen and oxygen) with a Vulcain 2 thruster from Ariane 5;
• cryogenic fuel (hydrogen and liquid oxygen) upper stage with a Vinci thruster that can be used more times than Ariane 5 ECA’s HM-7B, which can only be used once.

The typical mission profile of Ariane 6 is divided into three distinct stages:

Ascent phase

When the Vulcain 2.1 is ignited on take-off, the on-board computers check the status of the thruster and authorise take-off by switching on the two (or four) solid boosters.

The separation of the solid rocket boosters is activated as soon as their fuel is exhausted and the payload cover is released approximately one minute later, when the aerothermal flow becomes low enough so as not to damage the payload.

The shutdown of the Vulcain 2.1 with the separation of the first stage marks the end of the first stage.

Upper stage phase

The upper stage (ULPM) can be turned on several times, offering great flexibility and allowing the possibility of placing payloads on different orbits in the case of a shared launch. This stage typically consists of one, two or more ignitions to reach the target orbit, depending on altitude, eccentricity and inclination.

For very elliptical equatorial orbits, such as GTO, a single boost (direct profile) takes place.

For circular, highly inclined or GTO+ orbits, a first firing is used to reach an intermediate orbit and then, following a coast phase whose duration depends on the target orbit, a second Vinci firing is performed to reach the final orbit.

In the case of launches with multiple payloads, several ignitions and shutdowns of the thruster can be performed to ensure that all the mission’s target orbits are reached, albeit with different eccentricities and inclinations.

The payload is then separated.

De-orbiting the upper stage

After separation of the payload, and following a time required to ensure a safe distance between the upper stage and the payload, the upper stage is typically either deorbited or driven into a graveyard orbit. The latter manoeuvre can be performed by the ACS thrusters or in some cases directly by the main thruster.

Ariane 6

Componenete 1

Componenete 2

Componenete 3

Cover drain

Housing seals

Main housing

Shaft and Blisk

Shaft driven

Support bearing

Staffa

Staffa 2