The second launch of the European carrier rocket Ariane 6 took place, which took off from the Kourou Cosmodrome in French Guiana and successfully launched the third military reconnaissance satellite of the Composante Spatiale Optique program – CSO-3 – into sun-synchronous orbit. About this reported European Space Agency (ESA).
After the end of the operation of the Ariane 5 launch vehicle, ESA was left without its own rockets for a long time, and the first test launch of Ariane 6 was repeatedly postponed. It did not take place until July 9, 2024, but ended in a partial failure due to problems with the deorbiting of the second stage. During this test, residents of different regions of Ukraine could observe the night glow in the sky.
The new launch went smoothly. The second stage of the rocket launched the CSO-3 satellite, the mass of which is 3500–3600 kg, into a sun-synchronous orbit 800 km high, after which the stage was officially de-orbited. A modification of Ariane 62 equipped with two side boosters was used for this mission.
In the Ariane 64 version, which has four boosters, the rocket can deliver a payload of up to 21,650 kg to low Earth orbit, 15,500 kg to sun-synchronous, and up to 5,000 kg to geostationary, making it a Falcon 9 competitor, except for the lack of reusability.
We will remind that satellites of the Composante Spatiale Optique series are French military surveillance and reconnaissance devices. France currently transmits information from these satellites to Ukraine, instead of data from American systems.
