Europe launches maiden flight of Ariane 6 rocket
CBSN
Running years behind schedule, Europe's new Ariane 6 rocket blasted off on its maiden flight Tuesday, thundering away from the European Space Agency's jungle launch site in French Guiana in a bid to restore independent European access to space.
Facing increasingly stiff international competition, Europe's space agencies see the Ariane 6 as critical to re-establishing and maintaining their foothold in low-Earth orbit and beyond, launching European military satellites, science missions, navigation and communications satellites and other commercial payloads.
"Ariane 6 will power Europe into space," ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher said in a post on X. "This is just the first step, we have lots of work to do yet, but we are laser-focused on changing the future of the European space transportation ecosystem."
