By Tim Hepher
(Reuters) -Europe’s newest uncrewed heavy launcher blasted off on a delayed mission to carry a French military observation satellite towards orbit on Thursday in its first commercially operational launch.
The Ariane 6 rocket lifted from Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, at 1:24 p.m. local time (1624 GMT), live webcast images showed, following two earlier postponements.
Europe’s flagship staged a partially successful inaugural test flight on July 9 last year, carrying out a series of trials but leaving its upper stage in orbit after a software glitch.
Thursday’s launch, ferrying the CSO-3 optical and infrared satellite for the French Air Force’s Space Command to orbit, marks the climax of more than a decade of development.
Since the retirement of the workhorse Ariane 5 in 2023, Europe has had little independent access to space, with war in Ukraine cutting Western ties to Russian Soyuz rockets and Italy’s Vega C grounded for two years until last December.
European nations agreed in 2014 to develop Ariane 6 in response to growing competition in the commercial launch market but its arrival, originally due in 2020, was repeatedly delayed.
The delays left Europe relying on Elon Musk’s SpaceX for some launches.
Thursday’s military satellite deployment, coinciding with a European summit on a transatlantic rift over Ukraine and security following the postponements, has emerged as a test for Europe’s progress towards greater autonomy in strategic sectors.
Although carrying a military payload, the journey is considered a commercial one by European authorities because it is the first being handled for Ariane 6 by operator Arianespace, rather than the European Space Agency which oversaw development.
Ariane 6 is built by ArianeGroup, co-owned by Airbus and Safran.
(Reporting by Tim Hepher; Editing by Toby Chopra)
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