The European Space Agency (ESA) is optimistic ahead of the maiden launch of Europe's Ariane 6 rocket from the European spaceport in Kourou in French Guiana on Tuesday.
"I feel a wide-range of emotions as we get ready to make an impact on European history, for Europe's future, for generations of Europeans," declared Josef Aschbacher on Tuesday, the ESA's director general, in a post on X.
The new European launch vehicle had to wait 10 years for its first launch after a sometimes difficult development process.
The maiden flight from the European space centre in Kourou in French Guiana is to be attempted on Tuesday at 1900 GMT, a delay of one hour from the original launch window initially targeted by ESA.
The weather looked promising on launch day. There was a chance of rain, but that wouldn't affect the launch, according to ESA.
The mobile scaffolding that had stood around Ariane 6 for a long time was pulled away to expose the rocket on Tuesday. The scaffolding building is 90 metres high and weighs 8,200 tons. It was rolled away on rails some 140 metres away.
Speaking at the European spaceport in Kourou, ESA Director of Space Transportation Toni Tolker-Nielsen said he was "96% confident and 4% deeply terrified."
"We have done everything we needed to do. Now we have to launch," he added.
Once it lifts off, the 56-metre high and 540-ton rocket has a flight of almost three hours ahead of it. It is carrying The Exploration Company's Nyx Bikini space capsule, OOV-Cube satellites from RapidCubes and Curium One from Planetary Transportation Systems into space on the flight.
With the maiden flight, the ESA also aims to put behind the crisis currently affecting the launch vehicle sector in Europe, which presently has no means of sending satellites into space.
The Ariane 6 is a European project. The upper stage of the rocket was built at the ArianeGroup's Bremen plant, and the main stage in the French town of Les Mureaux to the north-west of Paris.
If the maiden flight goes well, Tolker-Nielsen said, the agency will have initiated a comeback. However, he added that it would then be necessary to ramp up production capacities and achieve a stable launch rhythm.
Aschbacher added: "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."
Tuesday's planned launch comes four years later than initially scheduled, and development of the rocket began a full decade ago.
Ariane 6 is the successor to Ariane 5, which was in service from 1996 until the summer of 2023.
The Ariane 6 rocket is intended to launch satellites into space for both commercial and public clients and is significantly cheaper than its predecessor.
ESA has praised Ariane 6 as modular and flexible. Depending on the mission, it can be equipped with two or four boosters and accommodate different payloads in a smaller or longer upper section.
Not everyone is convinced that the rocket is competitive with other recently developed launchcraft.
Space expert Martin Tajmar from the Dresden University of Technology in Germany said that, despite the innovations compared to its predecessor, Ariane 6 is by no means up to date.
Back in 2015, the US private space company SpaceX ushered in the age of reusable space travel with the company's Falcon 9 rocket. ESA's Tolker-Nielson said the next rocket to replace Ariane 6 will be reusable, although the agency is planning to use the new launcher until at least the mid-2030s.
However, Tajmar also emphasises that the main aim is not to keep up commercially with the competition. He sees the central task of Ariane 6 first and foremost as giving Europe its own access to space again and securing its independence.
The last Ariane 5 took off into space for the last time almost exactly one year ago. Since then, the 22 European countries that are members of ESA have had no means of their own to launch larger satellites into space.
In some cases, ESA has switched to SpaceX's Falcon 9 rockets.
There are also currently no European launchers for smaller satellites either. The first commercial launch of ESA's Vega C rocket failed in December 2022 and it has been grounded since. It is due to take off again for the first time in November.
France and Germany are among the biggest financial backers of the Ariane 6 project, while additional funding was also provided by the other 20 countries that are members of the ESA.
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