WASHINGTON — An Ariane 6 launched a reconnaissance satellite for the French military March 6 on the second flight of the European rocket.
The Ariane 6 lifted off from the European spaceport at Kourou, French Guiana, at 11:24 a.m. Eastern on a mission designated VA263. The rocket quickly soared out of view into cloudy skies above the spaceport. Payload deployment took place a little more than an hour after liftoff following a second burn of the upper stage.
The payload was CSO-3, the third and final in a series of reconnaissance satellites known as Composante Spatiale Optique for the French military. CSO-3, like its two predecessors, will provide high-resolution imagery for France for European allies. Airbus Defence and Space built the satellite bus and Thales Alenia Space provided the imaging payload.
The launch was just the second flight of the Ariane 6, after a mostly successful debut in July 2024. The rocket reached orbit and deployed its satellite payloads, but failed to perform a final deorbit burn, stranding the upper stage and two reentry vehicles still attached to it in orbit.
At the time of that launch, Arianespace had planned to conduct the second Ariane 6 before the end of the year after diagnosing the issue that prevented the upper stage from deorbiting. In November, though, the company delayed the launch to February, citing only ongoing work to address “a small number of deviations” seen in data from the flight.
Arianespace then targeted a launch Feb. 26, but postponed that launch to fix unspecified issues with ground systems needed for the launch. A launch attempt March 3 was scrubbed less than an hour before liftoff, again because of ground infrasrtrucutre issues.
The CSO-3 launch was the first of five launches Arianespace is planning for the Ariane 6 in 2025, David Cavaillolès, the new chief executive of Arianespace, said at the European Space conference Jan. 28. He said the company would work to achieve its goal of 9 to 10 Ariane 6 launches a year “as soon as possible.”
The 2025 schedule, though, is backloaded to the second half of the year. The next Ariane 6 launch may not take place until August. Arianespace announced at the European Space Conference an agreement with Eumetsat, the European weather satellite operator, to move up the launch of Metop-SG-A1 polar-orbiting satellite to the second commercial Ariane 6 launch, VA264, which it said would take place in August.
Arianespace has not disclosed a schedule for the remaining Ariane 6 launches it plans for the final four months of 2025, but one will carry the Sentinel-1D radar imaging satellite for the ESA/European Commission Copernicus program of Earth observation satellites, according to an agreement also announced in January.
Getting to that target launch cadence is vital for Arianespace to serve its largest commercial customer, Amazon’s Project Kuiper broadband constellation. Amazon acquired 18 Ariane 6 launches in 2022 as part of launch deals that also included contracts with Blue Origin and United Launch Alliance.
“My focus in the short term is to deliver the ramp-up, to deliver the Kuiper contract with Amazon and, of course, to deliver the institutional contract with the European Commission and ESA,” Cavaillolès said at the conference.
