Operator
European Space Agency (ESA)Manufacturer
European Space Agency (ESA)Dummy Payload
7/9/2024
Tests are ongoing at Guiana Space Centre and at the German space agency DLR to qualify Ariane 6.
Arianespace is responsible for operating the Ariane 6 and Vega C launchers developed by ESA, with ArianeGroup and Avio as the industrial prime contractors respectively.
Amazon has contracted 17 Ariane 6 launches from Arianespace.
Toni Tolker-Nielsen, ESA director of space transportation, holds that there are no signs the HFT-4 abort will delay the Ariane 6 inaugural flight.
CNES is the launch base prime contractor for the Ariane 6.
Arianespace planned five Ariane 6 launches for 2025 with the manifest backloaded to the second half of the year.
The initial launch of Ariane 6 has been postponed, leading to a later and smaller scale commencement of series production.
The PHOEBUS upgrade will be introduced in the Ariane 6 Block 2 version, expected to debut in 2026.
Amazon has contracted 18 Ariane 6 launches for Project Kuiper, with the first launch scheduled for early next year.
Ariane 6 is operated by Arianespace.
The 2026 manifest for Arianespace will open with the first flight of the more powerful four-booster variant of the Ariane 6 rocket.
OHB participates fully in the construction of launch infrastructure at the Guiana Space Centre, including the ELA-4 launch platform that supports Ariane 6 flights through its subsidiary MT Aerospace.
Amazon has started shipping Project Kuiper satellites to French Guiana for their first launch on Ariane 6.
ESA has commitments to the Artemis Moon missions, development of successor rockets to Arianespace's Ariane 6, and launching IRIS² by the 2030s.
The next Galileo satellites have been mounted to their Ariane 6 dispenser.
ArianeGroup has proposed an evolution of Ariane 6 as part of ESA’s BEST! initiative.
The webpage https://sites.google.com/site/exosnews/home/rockets/adeline documents the Adeline reusable launcher concept.
VA267 was described as the first of 18 Ariane 6 launches contracted by Amazon Leo.
As of January 17, 2026, a forum post described Arianespace as being responsible only for Ariane 6 and possibly Maia, and described Avio as the launch service provider for Vega-C and Vega-E.
The Ariane 6 first flight was targeted for 2020 according to ESA's October 2014 update.