Europe’s new Ariane 6 heavy-lift rocket will perform a crucial eight-minute engine test today, and you can watch the event live.
The Ariane 6 test vehicle will fire its single Vulcain 2.1 engine today for 470 seconds — as long as it would burn during an operational launch — on the pad at the European Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.
The hot fire test is scheduled to begin at 3:30 PM EST (2030 GMT). You can watch it live here on Space.com, courtesy of the European Space Agency, or live Via ESA. Coverage will begin at 3:10 PM EST (2010 GMT).
Related: The first launch of the new European Ariane 6 rocket has been postponed to 2024
The Ariane 6 is the next generation of powerlifters in Europe. The rocket consists of a core stage, powered by a single Vulcain 2.1 engine, as well as an upper stage containing a smaller Vinci engine. The vehicle is also equipped with two or four solid rocket boosters, which increase its thrust upon takeoff.
The Ariane 6 will replace the workhorse Ariane 5, which was retired last July after 27 years of service and more than 100 successful launches. Although the new rocket was supposed to be operational by 2020, allowing a smooth transition between the two European vehicles, it has suffered a series of delays.
The vehicle’s makers are now targeting its first launch sometime in 2024, and today’s test is an important milestone on the road to flight.
“This eight-minute engine startup experiment re-enacts how the Ariane 6 core stage would be fired during a normal spaceflight,” ESA officials wrote in a letter. Test description. “The experiment, conducted using a test model on the launch pad at the European Spaceport, will be the longest complete operation to date of the Ariane 6 lower liquid propulsion module equipped with a Vulcain 2.1 engine.”
If all goes according to plan, Vulcain 2.1 will burn approximately 165 tons (150 metric tons) of propellant — ultracold liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen — during the experiment.
Today’s test will not be the first time Ariane 6 has fired its main engine.
On September 5, for example, the teams conducted a training launch of the Ariane 6 rocket on the Kourou platform. The exercise included a test fire of a Vulcain 2.1 rocket, although the burn lasted only four seconds.
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