/sci/ - Science & Math

https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/05/the-ariane-6-rockets-debut-will-slip-into-2024-the-question-is-how-far/

> So in the best-case scenario, it seems likely that the European Space Agency and the rocket's developer, ArianeGroup, could complete these milestones by the end of the third quarter of this year. Assuming there is still a nine-month period between their completion and the inaugural flight of the Ariane 6, we can set a "no earlier than" launch date for the rocket in the second quarter of 2024. More realistically, the launch will occur sometime next summer.

> There has been some criticism that Europe did not innovate enough with the design of its Ariane 6 rocket when the vehicle was conceived in 2014. The booster is largely an update of Ariane 5 technologies, with an eye toward reducing costs, rather than a major step toward a reusable booster like the Falcon 9. However, if the rocket had arrived by its original target in 2020, it would find no shortage of customers given the current lack of launch capacity in the Western world.

> Instead, the Ariane 6 will now be about four years late and compete against a new generation of rockets with varying levels of reuse and cost competitiveness—including Rocket Lab's Neutron vehicle, United Launch Alliance's Vulcan, SpaceX's Starship, Blue Origin's New Glenn, Relativity Space's Terran R, Japan's H3 rocket, and more. In other words, had ArianeGroup executed on the development of Ariane 6, it could have gotten the jump on all of these vehicles and been the West's alternative to the Falcon 9.

so I guess the rumours from one of the tank providers was right, specifically

https://spacenews.com/ohb-expects-first-ariane-6-launch-in-early-2024/