No one is laughing at Elon Musk or Space X any more. No one will be laughing Tuesday tonight in Kourou, French Guiana, for the first launch of Ariane 6, twenty-eight years after the first launch of Ariane 5. When the Ariane 6 project began in 2014, it had already been eight years since Musk launched his first rocket; four years since he dispatched the ninth version, the Falcon 9; two years since the Dragon capsule set course for the International Space Station as part of the COTS Demo Flight 2 mission. "Yes, but it's not the same", say the experts questioned about the timing of the European project.

Of course, Ariane 6, which will be able to carry up to 4.5 tonnes in its Ariane 62 version (as it will on 8 July 2024) or 11.5 tonnes in its Ariane 64 version, has nothing to do with it. "Europe must have autonomous access to space if it is to realise its ambitions on the world stage, advance knowledge and develop its economy", the European Space Agency stated in its special report and in an unprecedented effort to communicate with European editorial offices. "Compared with its illustrious predecessors, the Ariane 6 launcher offers a versatility that opens up entirely new prospects”.

Watch the launch, currently scheduled for 7:30pm

Ariane 6 is scheduled to launch 9 to 12 times a year. The aim is to stabilise this frequency after the first inaugural flights in 2024. By way of comparison, SpaceX reached 100 launches in 2023. This year, the American company is aiming to carry out around 144 launches, i.e. 12 launches per month, or around one launch every 2.5 days.

The total cost of the European project is estimated at around €4bn. This budget covers the development and production of the first rockets, as well as the associated infrastructure. The aim of Ariane 6 is to reduce launch costs by 40%-50% compared with its predecessor, Ariane 5, in order to remain competitive in the global space launch market.

Among the new features, the upper stage, fuelled by liquid oxygen and hydrogen, is capable of reigniting four times, which is highly suitable for launching multiple payloads and for de-orbiting this stage at the end of a mission, a particularly important factor in view of the debris and the risks it poses over our heads.

For this first flight, which brings together dozens of industrial partners and 13 countries but not Luxembourg, Ariane 6 will carry eight satellites (including one from NASA), four deployers and five experiments - some of which will remain attached to the upper stage to collect data before returning to Earth.

The precise amount of an initial contract signed between Arianespace and Amazon for the launch of satellites for the Kuiper project has not been disclosed. The agreement is part of a package of contracts worth several billion dollars. Amazon has signed agreements for a total of 83 launches split between Arianespace, Blue Origin, and United Launch Alliance (ULA). Of these 83 launches, Arianespace is responsible for 18 with its Ariane 6 rocket. But some are already claiming that Europe did not need to "sell off" this price.