Europe’s Ariane 6 rocket starts development

Europe’s new Ariane 6 will be a modular rocket that can be tailored to launch one or two large satellites at a time into low-altitude perches and geostationary orbits favoured by commercial telecoms spacecraft

Height: 63m

Diameter: 5.4m

A62 CONFIGURATION
With two fuel boosters, will launch medium-sized Earth-observation spacecraft, at cost of $76m
Payload: 5,000kg

A64 CONFIGURATION
With four boosters, will put up two large telecoms satellites at a time, at cost of $126m
Payload: 10,500kg

Upper stage 
New cryogenic engine called Vinci, under development

Second stage
Powered by hydrogen- fuelled Vulcain engine based on one currently flying on Ariane 5

First stage 
Two or four P120 solid-fuelled boosters – same as first firing stage of new Vega C launcher

Liftoff weight

Ariane 62: 500 tonnes

Ariane 64: 800 tonnes 

To enter service: Around 2020. Ariane 6 will replace Ariane 5 and Russian Soyuz vehicles currently operating out of French Guiana

Launch rate: 12 flights per year

Integration: Assembled horizontally – practice long used for Russian launchers and recently adopted by others

Development cost: ~$4.6bn

Sources: Airbus Safran Launchers, ESA