Earlier today, the European Space Agency (ESA) successfully launched an Ariane 6 rocket, the next generation of European space rockets. The launch was from the ESA’s Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana.
Europe is once again moving away from it dependence on US and Russian rockets to get its space program into space. The launch of the new rocket has been delayed for years while the Ariane 5 flew its last mission about a year ago.
On it’s Twitter page, the ESA stated:
We have now entered into a new era of spaceflight for Europe, powering us into space and allowing us to realise our ambitions on the world stage.
The inaugural flight did experience a problem when part of its test payload failed to deploy. This will need to be investigated and corrected before more critical payloads are placed on a rocket.
That said, all in all it was a good day for the Europeans and space enthusiasts everywhere.
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