Home Applications Septentrio The Ariane 6 launch was successfully com…

The Ariane 6 launch was successfully completed. The potential consequences for Galileo G2

The Ariane 6 rocket, a new-generation heavy-lift launch vehicle developed by the European Space Agency (ESA), successfully conducted its first launch on 9 July 2024 at 16:00 from the European Space Launch Complex in French Guiana. Named VA262, this inaugural flight was a demonstration flight to test Ariane 6's ability to escape Earth's gravity and operate in space. Despite an ‘accident’ in the final phase of the mission, the European Space Agency (ESA) declared the launch a ‘success’, marking the return of Europe's ability to rely on its own heavy-lift launch vehicles to reach space.

The Ariane 6 rocket has a modular design that allows it to launch missions from low Earth orbit into deep space. It consists of a core stage, upper stage and booster composition, the core stage by the ‘Vulcan 2.1’ engine to provide power, which is the Ariane 5 rocket ‘Vulcan 2’ engine upgraded version; the upper stage using the new ‘Finch ‘The upper stage is powered by a new Finch engine with multiple ignition capability, enabling the Ariane 6 rocket to send multiple payloads into orbit at different altitudes in a single mission.

In its first launch, Ariane 6 successfully released its first satellites into a 600-kilometre orbit, but in the final stages of the mission, the auxiliary propulsion unit (APU) of the rocket's upper stage shut down abnormally shortly after the third activation, causing the rocket to go off-orbit and failing to put two more payloads into orbit. Nevertheless, the European Space Agency declared the rocket ‘a successful lift-off, orbit and satellite deployment, propelling Europe into space’.

It is also worth noting that Septentrio is a company specialising in high-precision GNSS technology, with products such as the Septentrio Mosaic GNSS module, a low-power, multi-band, multi-constellation GPS/GNSS receiver module designed for applications requiring centimetre-level positioning accuracy in challenging environments. The module supports all current and future GNSS satellite signals and has built-in advanced AIM+ technology for interference mitigation and anti-spoofing to ensure optimal availability, reliability and accuracy.

Septentrio's products have a wide range of applications in areas such as self-driving cars, robotics, precision agriculture, geoscience and infrastructure.

The first Ariane 6 mission was carried out in the United States in the first year of its existence. The first successful launch of Ariane 6 provides Europe with autonomous access to space, which is vital for Europe to remain competitive in the global space sector. The next Ariane 6 launch is scheduled for this year, the first commercial flight by Arianespace as operator and launch service provider. The successful launch of the Ariane 6 rocket not only restored Europe's access to space, but also laid the foundation for future space exploration and commercial launch missions.

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