Home » For the first time Ariane 6 on the ramp: a journey through the construction sites of the new European rockets

For the first time Ariane 6 on the ramp: a journey through the construction sites of the new European rockets

by admin
For the first time Ariane 6 on the ramp: a journey through the construction sites of the new European rockets

It had never happened, in the history of the European space, to see three different rockets soar over the rainforest of French Guiana: two ready to take off. One, still in the testing phase, unpublished in its entirety, seems to be just waiting to be released towards the sky. The doors of the structure that contains the Ariane 6, the new launcher of ArianeGroup, as tall as a 30-story building, are wide open for some Wow effect! Its silhouette stands out even from one and a half kilometers. The straight road that leads to its “mobile gantry”, the new assembly structure, is so long that, moving, it will leave it alone for the decollage.

Ariane 6 on the launch pad for tests – Photo Matteo Marini

This rocket won’t fly, it’s the copy, working, hooked up to the ramp to verify that the system, all together, works. Three years late, Ariane 6 will debut in autumn 2023. At the European spaceport of Kourou, French territory in South America, activities are intense and deadlines pressing. As the future prepares, two missions with strategically important satellites await to be delivered into orbit in December by Ariane 5, the jewel of the launchers made in Europe (over 114 launches in 26 years, 109 successes), and by Vega C, the vector developed and built almost entirely in Italy. After its inaugural launch in July, it is now in its first commercial flight.

Space

Vega C has started, the new ESA rocket with an Italian heart

by Matteo Marino


Normandy, in the space engine factory

It all begins seven thousand kilometers from here, across the Atlantic. Another climate, another forest, the French one at the gates of Paris, between Normandy and Île de France. To welcome the journalists to the ArianeGroup plants is Morena Bernardini, the Italian-French engineer at the head of the strategy of the giant that builds the most powerful European vectors for space (and the M51 ballistic missile). In a few weeks you will leave ArianeGroup for a new position, as general secretary of Mbda, the continental consortium of missiles and defense technologies.

In Vernon there is the production line of the Vulcain 2.1, the thrusters that will propel the Ariane 6. On one of the benches, the still shapeless tangle of pipes and connections are the nerves and tendons of “number three”, in the early stages of assembly . It is the third of the engines that will ignite under an Ariane 6. The first two are located twenty paces further on, in the same shed: almost four meters high, under the pumps and nozzles they already wear the bell through which the released energy will flow upon takeoff, their construction is in the final stages. Engineers and technicians in white coats buzz around these explosive two-ton steel muscles, suspended by robotic arms that move them on three axes as if they were twigs. “The engine that we could call ‘number zero’ is in Kourou – explains Bernardini – where the Ariane 6 is assembled for tests on the launch pad”.

Morena Bernardini in front of the Ariane 6 assembled on the launch pad at the space center in French Guiana – Photo Matteo Marini

The 3D printed thruster

ArianeGroup has invited the Italian press for a tour of France and South America, at a delicate moment. The ESA Ministerial was upon us, where future projects to be financed are decided and the right balance is found between ministers also on the strategic policy of launchers and therefore of access to space for Europe. Italy and France are partners in these programmes. The word you hear most often in Vernon is “future”. In addition to the Vulcain engines, the Prometheus takes shape here, which will be the “game changer” for ArianeGroup. “70 percent of it will be made with additive manufacturing – the Vernon engineers point out – so as to reduce time, costs and materials”. At the entrance, one can take hold of and appreciate the precision of the details of a 3D printed manifold: the complex shape carved out of regular holes, the sharp edges. Like our bones, or the trunk of a tree, it is one piece, with no joints or welds. With this system, it will go from six months to two weeks to produce an engine, from 5.5 million to one, as costs. Its thrust will have to be used to make Themis, the first reusable rocket of the new family of European launchers, take off and land: “Our vision is that one launcher cannot do everything – observes André-Hubert Roussel, CEO of ArianeGroup – and this will lead to future European family several classes of reusable launchers”.

The Prometheus engine ignition test at the Vernon site in Normandy – Credits: ArianeGroup

The first “naked” specimen of Themis is found a few kilometers inside the forest. Two tanks and the engine are fixed to the platform where, for decades, the engines have been started for the first time and the roar pulverizes the quiet of the wood, together with the branches of the nearest birches. Here the first “fire tests” are already underway, then we will see the first version of Themis fly from the Kiruna site in Sweden, with ever higher jumps, then, like the first stage of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 does, up to edge of the atmosphere and a controlled reentry. It is the path opened up by Elon Musk’s company, now that the market will require an ever more frequent number of launches, Europe is also gearing up.

Statistics

1800 objects launched into space in the last year alone: ​​because this is a record moment

by Matteo Marino


At Les Mureaux, the other French plant, there is instead the production line of the central part of Ariane 6. The first stage of the new rocket, the one that will house the Vulcain engines, the two tanks containing 30 tons of hydrogen and 100 of oxygen for initial thrust, 315 kilos of fuel burned per second. The wall of the gigantic tank pressure test chamber is constructed in such a way as to give way and collapse outwards, in the event of an explosion, to protect the safety of those who work in the plant: “Ariane 6 will be able to carry loads weighing 20 tons in low orbit” specifies Bernardini, but further developments on its power will make the leap to the Moon, perhaps with a European lander. It will have two configurations, with two or four boosters that allow the carrier to detach from the ground, they are the P120c, solid fuel engines, produced by Avio, in Italy. The upper stage, on the other hand, with the Vinci engine, is assembled in Germany.

The managing director of ArianeGroup, André-Hubert Roussel, with a model of the Canopee

All the parts, the tanks, the cylinders that contain them, and the engines, are produced in Europe and will then be shipped on board the Canopee, the ship that will collect them from the ports of the continent, including the boosters made in Colleferro, which will be embarked at Leghorn. After the Atlantic crossing, which lasts from ten days to two weeks, Canopee will thus land in Kourou, where Ariane 6 will take shape.

The central stadium of Ariane 6 in the Les Mureaux plant – Credits: ArianeGroup

In the launch tower of Ariane 6

Ela-4 (Ensemble de Lancement Ariane – 4) is the complex built from scratch to assemble and launch the new carrier. This too can be seen as an assembly line. An investment of about 700 million, divided between ESA and the French Space Agency (Cnes) was used only for these new structures: “Each element of the new Ariane 6 takes a different path – explains Nicolas Lyonnet, Ariane 6 project manager – to maximum fluidity and not create any hitch in the process”. The P120c side boosters, once loaded with propellant are stored and are ready to be used for future launches. The central components, first and second stages, are joined together and brought up to the final structure, the “mobile gantry” that covers the launch pad. Only here is the carrier “verticalized” and can finally soar, the boosters are added and the nose cone containing the load, shipped by the customer, is hoisted on top.

The Ariane 6 rocket on the launch pad inside the mobile structure. Credits: Ariane Group

Instead of completing the rocket and then moving it vertically on the launch pad, it is now “assembled” directly at the take-off site. The mobile structure is about a hundred meters high and “contains as much iron as the Eiffel Tower, over eight thousand tons – underlines Morena Bernardini – at the moment we are carrying out what are called combined tests, i.e. tests between the launch pad and the launcher, to make sure everything works at the connection level”.

Interview

Bianchi (ESA): “Launching a satellite will cost half”

by Matteo Marino


A few hours before the “liftoff”, the whole building moves and clears the way to the sky for the ignition of the engines. It will all become faster than having to move the rocket, 60 meters high, standing on its engines. With this system, the integration of Ariane 6 takes 12 days, for Ariane 5 it now takes a month: “Our subsidiary, Arianespace, which markets the Ariane and Vega launchers has already sold 29 Ariane, which has not yet been launched and it is already demonstrating great success on the market” adds Bernardini. Among these, there are 18 launches sold only to Amazon to bring into orbit the satellites of the Kuiper broadband connection constellation. A large European constellation of this type, Iris2, is also expected in the future. But at the head of Ariane 6 we will perhaps also be able to see the first astronauts take off from European soil: “We presented Susie, a cargo vehicle but which can also carry astronauts – continues the ArianeGroup strategist – it is compatible with Ariane 6, we will be able to give Europe the capability for manned flight and to be like other space powers”.

Artist’s impression of the reusable Susie stage, ArianeGroup’s project for the first European astronaut transport vehicle – Credits: ArianeGroup

Ariane 5 will detach to bring into orbit, on 13 December, two Intelsat telecommunications satellites and the new generation Eumetsat weather satellite, Mtg-I1. Almost a year ago, ArianeGroup’s highly reliable “flagship” put the largest space telescope ever built, the James Webb https://italian.tech/2021/12/24/news/james_webb_space_telescope-330986060/ on the right track. A thrust so precise that it even doubled the life of the telescope, because it was not necessary to use fuel to adjust the trajectory. A “medal” certified by thanks and autographed by the administrator of NASA, Bill Nelson. The launch tower of Ariane 5, after it has definitively passed the baton to the successor, will remain where it is. Difficult and too expensive to remove. The Vega mobile tower, less than a kilometer away, however, already modified, will continue to act as a base for the launches of Vega C, which awaits its turn in December to put two Pleiades satellites into orbit for Earth observation. In the background, away from everything else, is the darker silhouette of another launch building. It is that of the Soyuz, abandoned by the Russians after the end of the collaboration with Europe, a few days after the invasion of Ukraine.

See also  The decline of the Russian tech industry: from Yandex to the Skolkovo tech hub

You may also like

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Accept Read More

Privacy & Cookies Policy