European rocket - Despite missing ignition: Ariane flight successful for expert
Despite the repeated ignition of a part of the European rocket Ariane 6 not working at the end, space expert Martin Tajmar considers the maiden flight a "great success". "A lot can go wrong, and a little thing towards the end also didn't go as planned, but being there to witness the start and the success outweighs it all", said Tajmar, who holds the chair for space systems at TU Dresden and is not involved in the Ariane project.
The rocket took off from the spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on Tuesday. The flight proceeded smoothly at first, and the carrier rocket brought several satellites into space. At the end of the flight, the upper part, which was installed in Bremen, was supposed to reignite and essentially re-enter the Earth's atmosphere to burn up. Since the re-ignition failed, this upper stage now remains in space.
"It's a great surprise that so little didn't work", evaluates Tajmar the incident. In total, the rocket had 17 payloads on board, i.e., approximately satellites. According to the expert, everything went according to plan with 15, but not with the two re-entry experiments.
Some things like this re-ignition cannot be tested properly on Earth, explained Tajmar, because there is a gravitational force here and not up there. "Then the fuel swings around a bit - things we didn't foresee". Of course, there is no one in space to intervene.
The first launch of the previous rocket, the Ariane 5, was a complete disaster, reminded Tajmar. "The second start was a mess, the third flight went somewhat better". This time it went much better.
Probably everything will work on the second flight of Ariane 6, estimates Tajmar. "Even in America, Elon Musk starts Space X rockets to learn. Because even he knows: You can't test everything on the ground, you test it in flight".
- The rocket for the maiden flight of Ariane 6 originated from the spaceport in Kourou, located in France's overseas territory, French Guiana.
- TU Dresden's space expert, Martin Tajmar, who is not associated with the Ariane project, praised the flight despite the failure of the re-ignition attempt in Bremen's upper stage.
- Europe's space industry joined other nations that rely on space travel to overcome some challenges during the launch process, as demonstrated by Tajmar's comment about Elon Musk and SpaceX.
- As the European rocket Ariane 6's first launch was highly anticipated in the field of science, many researchers and companies in various parts of Europe, including Bremen, eagerly awaited the successful re-entry of the upper stage.
