Weekly - Ariane-6 completes its inaugural launch after 4 years of delays and more
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Ariane-6 completes its inaugural launch after 4 years of delays
Last week, ESA’s Ariane-6 rocket successfully completed its first-ever flight after nearly four years of delays. The rocket, built by the private aerospace firm Ariane is supposed to be a revolutionary new launch vehicle mainly for its lower costs and simpler production. It can carry larger payloads than its predecessor Ariane-5, into low earth orbit or farther away if needed. The payloads onboard the rocket this time were mainly microsatellites for research purposes.
Space-X rocket fails after more than 350 successful missions
Last week, SpaceX’s Falcon-9 rocket attempted to put 20 Starlink constellation satellites into low earth orbit. Unfortunately, the second stage of the rocket failed and put the satellites in a very low, un-recoverable orbit. The satellites probably burnt up in the earth’s atmosphere. This failure has broken the rocket’s streak of more than 350 successful missions in the past.
Chinese rocket fails to launch
Last week, Chinese space startup i-Space’s Hyperbola-1 failed to launch due to unknown reasons. Such an incident is very rare and can even be called abnormal. Scientists are investigating the reason for this failure. i-Space is the first ever private firm in China to launch a rocket successfully into space.
