20.10.2025

Credit: CNES / ESA / Arianespace / ArianeGroup / Optique Vidéo CSG / L Boyer

Arianespace has confirmed that the first flight of the more powerful, four-booster variant of the Ariane 6 rocket will not be launched until 2026. The first Ariane 64 rocket had been expected to launch in late 2025, carrying the first batch of Amazon’s Project Kuiper satellites.

On 16 October, Arianespace, the commercial operator of the Ariane 6 rocket built by ArianeGroup, announced that the final Ariane 6 flight of the year would carry a pair of Galileo satellites for Europe’s global satellite navigation system. The satellites will be launched aboard an Ariane 62, the two-booster variant of the rocket. It will be the fifth flight of this variant, with the fourth scheduled for 4 November. The announcement also revealed that the first flight of the Ariane 64, the more powerful of the two variants, would not occur until 2026.

In November 2024, ArianeGroup announced that it had completed the qualification of the Ariane 6 upper stage for use on the rocket’s four-booster variant. This additional qualification layer ensured that the stage was capable of withstanding the forces generated by two extra P120C boosters, each producing 4,500 kN of thrust. At the time, the company stated that Ariane 64 rockets would “begin flying in 2025.” A European Space Agency update from June 2025 reaffirmed that expectation.

Doubts about the first flight occurring in 2025 only emerged during a September panel at World Satellite Business Week, when Arianespace CEO David Cavaillolès declined to confirm whether the variant would fly this year, saying simply that “development of the Ariane 64 is going in the right direction.” As a result, the decision to push the flight back likely occurred over the four months between June and October.

While the 16 October Arianespace announcement did not offer any explanation for the delay, it did reveal that the inaugural flight of the Ariane 64 rocket would be its first launch of 2026. The mission will be the first of 18 contracted by Amazon to carry its Project Kuiper satellites to orbit.

Quelle: European Spaceflight LTD