Tue, Mar 11, 2025
Ariane-6 Rocket’s First Commercial Launch From Kourou
The CSO-3 (Composante Spatiale Optique) Earth observation satellite built by Airbus for the French Armed Forces was successfully launched by an Arianespace Ariane-6 rocket on its first commercial spaceflight from the European Spaceport at the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana.
CSO-3 is the third of the three-satellite constellation and will provide very high-resolution geo-information intelligence to the French Armed Forces and its partners under the MUSIS program, or Multinational Space-based Imaging System for reconnaissance, surveillance, and observation.
Alain Fauré, Head of Space Systems at Airbus said, “With each CSO satellite, there may be a new team but the same goal of serving our government customers remains: to provide the best resolution with an agile and secure network. All this, for the intelligence, autonomy and security of our nation. CSO-3 is a perfect illustration of what Airbus and the French space industry can do for France and Europe. It is also a great example of what Europe can do when teaming up!”
Airbus was the prime contractor for the CSO program and provided the agile platform and avionics as well as integration, testing, and final delivery of the satellites to CNES, the French Space Agency. Thales Alenia Space provided the very high-resolution optical instrument to Airbus for integration.
Airbus also developed and provided the User Ground Segment to the French Space Command. The ground unit enables secure distribution and sharing of the information for France and its European partners.
Lionel Suchet, CEO of CNES said, “I am delighted with the successful launch of CSO-3, a satellite serving French defense on behalf of CNES and DGA, built by Airbus Defence and Space in collaboration with Thales Alenia Space. I'd like to congratulate all the teams who helped make this launch a success, whether they were involved in preparing the satellite or in bringing this first Ariane 6 commercial mission to a successful conclusion.”
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