Space travel European Ariane 6 rocket also important for Switzerland
The new European Ariane 6 rocket is also flying under the Swiss flag. After a delay of around four years, the launcher is due to fly into space for the first time on July 9. Switzerland is one of 13 countries participating in the Ariane program.
06.07.2024, 08:31
SDA
There are high hopes for the rocket. It is intended to give the participating countries independent access to space. This is also part of Switzerland's space policy, said Renato Krpoun when asked by the Keystone-SDA news agency. Krpoun is Head of the Space Division at the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI).
The launch of the 56-metre-high, 540-tonne rocket is scheduled for 8 p.m. Swiss time on Tuesday from the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. The rocket can be equipped with two or four boosters and can transport satellites weighing up to 11.5 tons.
Since the Ariane 6's predecessor rocket, Ariane 5, lifted off for the last time in summer 2023, Europe no longer has its own means of launching large satellites into space. Due to the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, the Russian Soyuz rockets were also no longer an option. For example, the Euclid space telescope had to be launched with a Falcon 9 rocket from Elon Musk's company SpaceX in July 2023.
Technologies for everyday life
"Access to space has become very important," said Krpoun. "We use space infrastructure every day for navigation systems, for time signals and for weather forecasts." Smartphones wouldn't work without satellites either. Krpoun was convinced that if there was a problem getting this infrastructure into space, it would be noticed immediately.
Ariane 6 was actually supposed to be launched for the first time in 2020. The reasons for the delay are the coronavirus pandemic and delays in development.
But now it is ready. The rocket has successfully passed its final tests. After its maiden flight in July from the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, it is set to be used commercially from the end of the year. "Over 30 launches have already been sold," said Krpoun. The company Amazon, for example, wants to use the Ariane 6 rocket to launch satellites into space for the "Kuiper" satellite internet project. In future, the rocket will be launched around nine times a year.
Swiss industry involved
The rocket's payload fairing comes from the Swiss company Beyond-Gravity, and APCO Technologies, based in Aigle VD, supplied the fastenings and the booster cap, among other things.
The payload fairing protects the rocket's cargo during launch and when it passes through the earth's atmosphere. The boosters give the rocket additional thrust during launch. According to Krpoun, the attachment must withstand a thrust of 270 tons.
The cost of the project amounted to around four billion euros. Switzerland contributed 2.4 percent of the costs.
Criticism of the rocket
There is also criticism of the new launcher: unlike the Falcon 9 rocket from SpaceX, for example, Ariane 6 is not reusable. This means that a new Ariane 6 rocket has to be produced for each launch.
It is also criticized for being too expensive and therefore unable to keep up with the competitiveness of SpaceX rockets. An exact price for a launch with Ariane 6 is not known. A launch price of the equivalent of around 67 million Swiss francs was envisaged. Following the delays, however, it is assumed that the price will be higher. It will probably not be able to keep up with the base price of the Falcon-9 (around 60 million Swiss francs).
However, the fact that many launches have already been sold shows that there is a need for alternatives to SpaceX, said Krpoun.
