Ariane 6 seen from the skies just hours before it lifts-off for the first time from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana. With the 90-metre-high, 8200-tonne mobile building rolled back, tanking is ready to begin.

Ariane 6 is Europe’s newest heavy-lift rocket, designed to provide great power and flexibility at a lower cost than its predecessors. The launcher’s configuration – with an upgraded main stage, a choice of either two or four powerful boosters and a new restartable upper stage – will provide Europe with greater efficiency and possibility as it can launch multiple missions into different orbits on a single flight, while its upper stage will deorbit itself at the end of mission.