Europe will decide within weeks when to resume space launches

PARIS (Reuters) – European space officials said on Monday they will face crucial timing decisions in the coming weeks about getting Europe’s main space bombers back into flight after a series of delays.

The inaugural launch of the new Ariane 6 launch pad in Europe has been delayed until next year, while a test failure of the smaller Vega C rocket has hampered chances of a return to service in 2023 for that rocket after it was decommissioned in December 2022.

Europe’s third traditional path into space, Russia’s Soyuz program, was halted last year amid the breakdown in relations between East and West in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The development has left Europe scrambling to close a launch capability gap as market competition for commercial launches heats up, with the larger, upgraded Ariane 6 rocket designed to be more competitive against rivals led by Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

The European Space Agency said, in a press conference, that it plans to set a date for the launch of the first Ariane 6 rocket in early October, after completing a series of engine tests.

The next test is scheduled for Tuesday after efforts to light the main section engine at the launch site in French Guiana on August 29 were delayed. A separate test of the complex upper stage was successfully conducted in Germany on Friday.

ESA Director General Josef Ashbacher declined to commit to a full launch in the first half of next year, but told reporters that results so far indicated a “not too late” test launch in 2024, followed by the first commercial mission about 6 months later.

Ariane 6 is being developed at a cost of 4 billion euros to replace Ariane 5, which ended operations in July, leaving European countries with a vacuum of independent access to space for the first time in more than four decades.

The Italian Vega C was grounded in December 2022 after the failure of its second mission. Investigators blamed the launch failure on a defective part of the engine, and a new probe was launched in June after a failed ground test.

Ashbacher said the timing of the Vega C’s return to operation will be decided after the committee’s reports later this month.

Meanwhile, the previous-generation Vega rocket is scheduled to make its first launch since the discontinuation of its new, larger sister model on Oct. 4 in 2022.

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