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Ariane 6 Upper Stage Qualifies for Four-Booster Configuration

Space

Business Honor
13 November, 2024

Ariane 6 upper stage completes final tests, set for four-booster launches starting in 2025

The upper stage for Europe's newest rocket, Ariane 6 has finished its final qualification tests at the European Space Agency's (ESA) facilities in the Netherlands, confirming it is ready to launch on the most powerful version of the rocket-a configuration equipped with four boosters.

The tests, held at the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) of ESA were intended to verify how resilient the upper stage could be against the intensively high acoustic pressures when taking off. Five different acoustic tests were performed on the upper stage, which went through every different level of intensity resembling noise produced during rocket launch. The tests were part of a wider-ranging hot-fire test campaign performed between 2022 and 2024 at the German aerospace center, the DLR, in Lampoldshausen.

The acoustic testing was done inside LEAF (Large European Acoustic Facility), Europe's largest sound-testing chamber, able to reproduce the intense environment a rocket undergoes during a launch. This should certainly seal the integrity of the upper stage since rockets will be hit with such an intense noise level while still in the air especially during the first few minutes of flight following liftoff. The four-booster launch configuration will mean an acoustic pressure higher than 60% than the two-booster configuration for the upper stage of the Ariane 6, due to its nearly double thrust at lift-off.

Ariane 6, which recently made its first demonstration flight of two boosters in July 2024, has been designed to take many different launch configurations to accommodate quite different mission requirements. It will allow the rocket to carry four boosters and hence can carry out more payloads or launch to a more difficult destination, which makes it an extremely versatile tool for a satellite launch.

In the process, qualification of the upper stage becomes a major milestone as the Ariane 6 prepares to enter into the phase of launches, with the four-booster variant set to begin operations in 2025.