It probably doesn’t surprise many but the much promised – although much delayed – debut launch flight of Arianespace’s powerful Ariane 64 has again been delayed to 2026. The delay was hinted at during the Paris World Space Business Week in September.

Arianespace confirmed the delay last week and declined to give a launch date other than to say it would supply the date about one month ahead of the launch.

An Ariane rocket will launch around November 4th but this will be the Ariane 62 version which is the variant with two solid rocket boosters. The Ariane 64 version has four solid rocket boosters.

Arianespace says the first Ariane 64 will carry a batch of Amazon’s Project Kuiper satellites.

Arianespace is promising that 2026 will be a busy year with launches of the ‘62’ and ‘64’ variants. Arianespace Chief Executive David Cavaillolè says there should be around eight missions in 2026.

Perhaps coincidentally Ariane Group, which controls the Ariane project, lost its CEO Martin Sion who has “stepped down”. Cavaillolè replaces him. Ariane Group is a joint venture between Airbus and Safran.

Arch-rival Space X has launched (as at October 6th) 129 rockets in 2025, and is targeting a total this year of around 150 flights. It has re-used its Falcon 9 booster first stage 117 times.

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