Arianespace May Use Ariane 6 for Crewed Launches | Aero-News Network
Aero-News Network
RSS icon RSS feed
podcast icon MP3 podcast
Subscribe Aero-News e-mail Newsletter Subscribe

Airborne Unlimited -- Most Recent Daily Episodes

Episode Date

Airborne-Monday

Airborne-Tuesday

Airborne-Wednesday Airborne-Thursday

Airborne-Friday

Airborne On YouTube

Airborne-Unlimited-07.14.25

Airborne-NextGen-07.15.25

AirborneUnlimited-07.16.25

Airborne-FlightTraining-07.17.25

AirborneUnlimited-07.11.25

Sat, Aug 03, 2024

Arianespace May Use Ariane 6 for Crewed Launches

While It Won't Be Done Anytime Soon, Europe May Soon Get its Own Human-Certified Rocket

Arianespace has been given a contract by the European Space Agency to explore the use of the firm's Ariane 6 Rocket for crewed missions.

The Ariane 6 has been the old world's only real pathway to space delivery, allowing European companies and governments a measure of self-sufficiency they wouldn't have if they had to rely on American launch systems. Unfortunately for them, Arianespace has only given them independence in payload delivery until now, leaving them at the mercy of outsiders when European Space Agency astronauts had to hitch a ride to the ISS.

That could change, if the firm can use the Ariane 6 as the basis of a Crew-Rated launch system. They'd been given a contract under the ESA's Future Launchers Preparatory Programme to study the feasibility of a crewed iteration of the Ariane 6, which would add a crew capsule alongside a host of security adjustments.

 

Human spaceflight is a serious endeavor, and despite China's less than stringent approach to safe rocketry, the ESA won't just rubber stamp a rocket on the basis of payload alone. Redundancies, backups, and fallbacks all need to find their way into the machine to ensure whomever is sent up can come back down intact.

The study still has a way to go, but a July launch of the heavy-lift Ariane 6 set some optimism into motion in the ESA, and that has a way of greasing wheels in a bureaucracy. Should a human-capable Ariane 6 come into being, the space market will get even more interesting, and give SpaceX (and technically to a lesser extent, Boeing) some competition.

FMI: www.arianespace.com

Advertisement

More News

ANN's Daily Aero-Term (07.15.25): Charted Visual Flight Procedure Approach

Charted Visual Flight Procedure Approach An approach conducted while operating on an instrument flight rules (IFR) flight plan which authorizes the pilot of an aircraft to proceed >[...]

Aero-News: Quote of the Day (07.15.25)

“When l became the Secretary of Defense, I committed to rebuild our military to match threats to capabilities. Drones are the biggest battlefield innovation in a generation, >[...]

ANN's Daily Aero-Linx (07.15.25)

Aero Linx: Stearman Restorers Association Welcome to the Stearman Restorers Association. The Stearman Restorers Association is an independent “Not for Profit” 501C-3 Co>[...]

NTSB Final Report: Kjelsrud Gary Kitfox

Airplane Exhibited A Partial Loss Of Engine Power When It Was About Halfway Down The Runway Analysis: The pilot of the experimental amateur-built airplane was departing from his pr>[...]

NTSB Prelim: Cessna A150L

The Flight Path Was Consistent With Low-Altitude Maneuvering On June 18, 2025, about 0922 mountain standard time, a Cessna A150L airplane, N6436F, was substantially damaged when it>[...]

blog comments powered by Disqus



Advertisement

Advertisement

Podcasts

Advertisement

© 2007 - 2025 Web Development & Design by Pauli Systems, LC