Arianespace is looking to increase its launches in 2026 to between six and eight missions. The launch business says its 2026 manifest will include its latest 4-booster Ariane 64 variant. The debut Ariane 6 rocket launch happened in July 2024 and an operational mission followed in March 2025. Recently it launched the Sentinel-1D government craft […]

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 […]

The market was expecting Arianespace to launch six of its giant Ariane 62 rocket this year. That will not happen. Arianespace CEO David Cavailloles told delegates at the Novaspace World Satellite Business Week in Paris that it has been a “perfect year” from a delivery point of view, and that two planned launches would happen […]

The French government has granted Italian launch services provider Avio a ten-year licence to carry out Vega rocket operations from the Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana. Italy had pushed for access for some years, and on July 10th representatives from Italy, Germany, and France met at the European Space Agency headquarters to sign the […]

European rocket launch company Arianespace says it has a four-year backlog but its clients are not yet ready with their cargoes. The first mission for its Ariane 6 rocket will not be ready until July. Arianespace managed its first commercial launch on March 6th which went smoothly. Arianespace’s newly-appointed Chief Executive David Cavaillolès told delegates […]

Arianespace has postponed the launch of its Ariane 6 rocket which was origially planned to fly on February 26th. Arianespace has not given a fresh date for the debut commercial mission which will eventually carry a French science craft (CSO-3) into a sun-synchronus orbit. “Due to further operations needed on a ground means, the launch […]

During last week’s 17th European Space Conference, launch company Arianespace announced it had won three new contracts. Arianespace was awarded contracts to launch PLATO, Sentinel-1D, and a pair of second-generation Galileo positioning satellites. The two Galileo craft will share a launcher. Arianespace now has a backlog of 30 Ariane 6 launches. Eighteen of them are […]

Arianespace will fly its next rocket mission (VA263) with Ariane 6 on February 26th. Its cargo will be a French military satellite (the CSO-3 high-res optical satellite). It is Ariane 6’s first commercial, fee-paying flight and follows on from the test debut flight on July 9th 2024. The current plan is for launch to take […]

Stéphane Israël, CEO of Arianespace since 2013 and member of the Executive Committee of ArianeGroup since 2017, will leave the Group on December 31st “to pursue a new career opportunity in January 2025” according to a statement from the rocket company. He is being replaced by David Cavaillolès who will join the Group in January […]

July 9th is the scheduled launch date for the much-delayed test flight European Space Agency’s (ESA) Ariane 6 rocket. However, last week saw Europe’s important weather organisation cancel its launch contract on an Ariane 6 flight. Worse, perhaps, the cancellation was made in favour of Arianespace’s arch-rival SpaceX. Eumetsat, in a June 28th statement, said […]