Europe's new Ariane 6 rocket to launch for first time ever on July 9

Europe’s new heavy rocket Ariane 6 is set to take off for the first time on its long-awaited flight today (July 9).

If all goes according to plan, an Ariane 6 rocket will launch from Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on Tuesday during a four-hour window that opens at 2 p.m. ET (1800 GMT).

You can watch the launch live here on Space.com, courtesy of European Space Agency (ESA); Coverage will begin 30 minutes before liftoff.

The Ariane 6 rocket, operated by French company Arianespace on behalf of the European Space Agency, is set to replace the aging Ariane 5 rocket, which was retired last year after 117 flights over nearly three decades.

The Ariane 6 rocket has been in development for nearly a decade. It was originally scheduled to launch in 2020, but technical issues and external problems such as the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine have pushed the timeline back several times.

Europe has high hopes for the new rocket, which is expected to launch nine to 12 times a year by 2026.

“The Ariane 6 rocket will ensure our independent access to space – and all the science, Earth observation, technology development and commercial possibilities that this entails,” ESA officials wrote in a letter to the European Space Agency. First Launch Preview.

“Thanks to several brand new features in Ariane 6, we will be able to carry more and take it further, while sustainably eliminating the launcher’s upper stage to prevent it from stalling. [from] “This becomes space debris,” they added.

Related: Finally: Europe’s new Ariane 6 rocket launches on July 9

Ariane 6 rocket will be deployed nine cubes The spacecraft is scheduled to enter low Earth orbit (LEO) on Tuesday, if all goes according to plan. The rocket will also carry a variety of suborbital experiments, including two re-entry capsules that will undergo a test fire as they return to our planet through the thick atmosphere.

The European Space Agency also noted in its mission preview that the rocket’s upper stage will also return to Earth. But the upper stage will not survive the flight, instead burning up in the air.