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Arianespace Launches Ariane 6 on Its Maiden Flight, VA262 · Chronopin

AerospacePosted 09/15/202609/15/2026 at 2:39 pm·@BuildDesk To timeline

Arianespace Launches Ariane 6 on Its Maiden Flight, VA262

Arianespace Launches Ariane 6 on Its Maiden Flight, VA262

Starts 07/09/2024

ELA-4 Launch Complex, Guiana Space Centre, Kourou, French Guiana

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Arianespace's newsroom and Wikipedia's^[2][3] Ariane flight VA262 article confirm Ariane 6's maiden flight lifted off from Kourou on 9 July 2024.

Start: Jul 9, 202490% CONFIDENCEfrom the source
End: Jul 9, 202490% CONFIDENCEfrom en.wikipedia.org

Arianespace Launches Ariane 6 on Its Maiden Flight, VA262

Europe's new heavy-lift launcher Ariane 6, built by ArianeGroup, flew for the first time from the Guiana Space Centre. The inaugural flight met its main objectives despite an anomaly in an upper-stage auxiliary unit late in the mission.

Ariane 6 flew for the first time on 9 July 2024 at 19:00 UTC, an Ariane 62 from ELA-4 at the Guiana Space Centre, after a one-hour delay for a data acquisition issue^[3]
Boosters and core stage performed as expected; the upper stage ignited at T+8 minutes and reignited at T+56 minutes to reach a circular orbit at 580 km^[3]
Eight CubeSats and five experiments were deployed correctly, but two reentry capsules (SpaceCase SC-X01 and Nyx Bikini) were not deployed as planned^[3]
At T+1 h 14 min the auxiliary propulsion system malfunctioned, preventing the third burn meant to deorbit the stage; the outcome is listed as a partial failure^[3]

Notable features

Ariane 6 is a two-stage expendable launcher developed for ESA and CNES by a consortium led by ArianeGroup to replace Ariane 5, designed to cut launch costs and raise the launch rate from seven to eleven missions a year^[2]
Both stages burn liquid hydrogen and oxygen: the lower stage carries about 140 t of propellant for a Vulcain 2.1, an upgraded Ariane 5 engine, and the upper stage uses the new Vinci engine, giving 180 kN for up to 900 seconds with up to five restarts^[2]
The Ariane 62 flown on VA262 has two P120C solid boosters, shared with Vega C, weighs about 530 t at liftoff and can place 4,500 kg in geostationary transfer orbit or 10,350 kg in low Earth orbit; the four-booster Ariane 64 lifts up to 11,500 kg to GTO^[2]
The rocket is 63 m tall and 5.4 m in diameter, with a carbon-fibre composite fairing from Beyond Gravity in 14 m and 20 m lengths^[2]

0

References 387% CONFIDENCE

The first entry is always the pin's source. Overall confidence is a weighted average of how firmly each reference supports the start and end times used above; a reference counts half as much for every 180 days older than the newest.

[1]90%
youtube.com/watch?v=V7Kvnsqt-kQ
youtube.com· Posted Sep 15, 2026· Starts Jul 9, 2024 ✓· 33% of score
Arianespace's newsroom and Wikipedia's^[2][3] Ariane flight VA262 article confirm Ariane 6's maiden flight lifted off from Kourou on 9 July 2024.
[2]80%
Ariane 6 - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org· Added Sep 22, 2026· 34% of score
Wikipedia's^[3] Ariane 6 article describes the two-stage hydrolox design with a Vulcain 2.1 lower stage and Vinci upper stage (180 kN, up to 900 s, up to five restarts), Ariane 62's two P120C boosters and 4,500 kg GTO / 10,350 kg LEO capacity, 63 m height and the Beyond Gravity fairing.
[3]90%
Ariane flight VA262 - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org· Added Sep 15, 2026· Starts Jul 9, 2024· Ends Jul 9, 2024 ✓· 33% of score
Wikipedia's^[2] Ariane flight VA262 article and Arianespace's own newsroom photo release confirm Ariane 6's inaugural launch (VA262) took place on 9 July 2024 from the Guiana Space Centre, the same catch-up-with-the-space-race Ariane 6 program covered by the FD Engineering documentary.

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