Ariane 6 maiden flight (2024)
Ariane 6's first launch in July 2024, successful for orbit insertion but incomplete, as the upper stage could not deorbit.
A maiden flight concentrates a launcher's risk, because systems never proven together in flight operate for the first time, and insurers price it separately or decline to cover it. This first flight also mixes two goals: placing payloads in orbit, and demonstrating functions that commercial customers will buy, such as relighting the upper stage. Ariane 6 achieved the first and partly failed the second, which shows that a flight can succeed for a payload's insurer while falling short for the launcher. The stage left in orbit also raises the question of compliance with deorbiting rules. Europe depended on it to regain autonomous access to space after Ariane 5's retirement.
On July 9, 2024 at 9 p.m. Paris time, Ariane 6 lifted off from Kourou and placed its payloads in orbit; during a later relight, the Vinci engine shut down early after an auxiliary power unit anomaly, and the deorbit burn did not take place. The reentry capsules remained attached to the stage in orbit; the task force attributed the anomaly to exceeded temperature limits.
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