If rocket development were a game, Europe’s heavy-lift launcher Ariane 6 beat the final level on hard mode on 15 December 2024. Over the course of one and a half day of operations, the Ariane 6 test model was fuelled with 180 000 kg of propellant and its main engine, Vulcain 2.1, was ignited exploring nominal and degraded operational conditions. In this way the operations’ team at ArianeGroup, France’s space agency CNES, and ESA could fine-tune operations and control software at the edge of extreme operational cases.

The combined test loading test, called CTLO3, is the last in a series of rehearsals to practice chronology launch operations for Ariane 6, and the final one of this kind before its first flight next year. It encompassed test of ultimate contingency modes.

This was the fifth countdown run to include loading Ariane 6 with cryo-propellants since July. The rehearsal was very well executed, and the countdown ran exactly as planned. The test was a full success and the launch operations for Ariane 6 are mastered, we are ready to go.