SALT LAKE CITY — An Ariane 6 successfully launched a European weather satellite with an Earth science hosted payload Aug. 12 in the third flight of that vehicle.
The Ariane 62, the version of the rocket with two strap-on boosters, lifted off from the European spaceport at Kourou, French Guiana, at 8:37 p.m. Eastern. The vehicle’s upper stage deployed its payload, MetOp-SG-A1, into a sun-synchronous orbit nearly 65 minutes later.
MetOp-SG-A1 is a 4,040-kilogram satellite built by Airbus Defence and Space for the European weather satellite agency Eumetsat. It is the first satellite in a second generation of polar-orbiting weather satellites planned by Eumetsat.
The spacecraft carries six imaging and sounding instruments to collect data for improved weather forecasts. It will be joined next year by MetOp-SG-B1, another polar-orbiting weather satellite with a complementary set of payloads. The overall program includes two additional pairs of satellites.
“The previous MetOp mission, MetOp First Generation, was the biggest contributor in the world to the reduction in forecast errors, reducing them by 25%,” said Phil Evans, director-general of Eumetsat, at a pre-launch briefing. “We’re expecting this new, advanced version of MetOp to continue and potentially improve that.”
One of those six instruments is a hosted payload, Sentinel-5, part of the Copernicus Earth observation program jointly run by the European Space Agency and the European Commission. It will measure trace gases and aerosols in the atmosphere to better understand pollutants.
“It provides very, very valuable information for our daily lives in terms of looking at air quality,” said Simonetta Cheli, director of Earth observation at ESA, at the pre-launch briefing.
The launch was the second for the Ariane 6 this year and the third overall, after its debut last July and a March launch of a French reconnaissance satellite. The last two launches, run by Arianespace, are considered commercial launches by the company even though the payloads are for government agencies.
“The success of this second commercial launch confirms the performance, reliability and precision of Ariane 6,” said Martin Sion, chief executive of ArianeGroup, the prime contractor for the rocket, in a post-launch statement. “Once again, the new European heavy-lift launcher meets Europe’s needs, ensuring sovereign access to space.”
Delays in the development of the Ariane 6 and increase of its launch rate led Eumetsat last year to move another of its weather satellites, MTG-S1, from Ariane 6 to Falcon 9. That satellite successfully launched July 1. In January, Arianespace and Eumetsat agreed to move up the MetOp-SG-A1 satellite launch to the third Ariane 6.
“We are still at the beginning of the Ariane 6 story,” David Cavaillolès, chief executive of Arianespace, said in comments on the launch webcast after payload deployment. “Now, our challenge is to continue the ramp-up. In the near future we’ll be launching more and more.”
Arianespace did not disclose the schedule or payload for the next Ariane 6 launch. Cavaillolès said at the Paris Air Show in June that the company planned five Ariane 6 launches in 2025, including the first of the more powerful Ariane 64 with four strap-on boosters.
The goal, he said then, is to reach the planned maximum launch rate of 10 missions a year “as soon as possible.” He cautioned, though, that could take several years, committing only to reaching that launch rate by 2029, when Arianespace expects to start launching satellites for Europe’s IRIS² secure connectivity constellation.