Ariane 5 flight VA261 — launch delay

The Ariane 5 flight that was scheduled for June 16th has been delayed.

Arianespace offered the following information regarding this launch delay via the company’s Twitter account…

“It has come to light that there is a risk to the redundancy of a critical function on the Ariane 5. Consistent with safety requirements, Arianespace has decided to postpone the roll-out of the VA261 launch vehicle. Analyses are underway to determine a new launch date.“

More information will follow, when available.

*Artistic rendition of the Heinrich Hertz satellite on-orbit. Image is courtesy of the German Space Agency*

Flight VA261 will carry to space two payloads — the German S pace Agency (DLR)’s experimental communications satellite, Heinrich Hertz, and the French communications satellite, Syracuse 4b.

The Syracuse IV (artistic rendition above) satellite-based telecommunications program is equipping the French Armed Forces with secure means of communications that are accessible in all scenarios (crises, major disasters, etc.). This program is comprised two military satellites – Syracuse 4A and 4B – and ground stations for users in the three services (Army, Navy, and the country’s Air and Space Force), enabling long-range communications between areas of operations and the decision-making centers in mainland France.

The flight will be the 117th mission for Ariane 5, a series which began in 1996. Notable Ariane 5 payloads have included ESA’s comet-chasing Rosetta, a dozen of Europe’s Galileo navigation satellites — orbited with just three launches — and the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope.

Ariane 5’s next-to-last launch sent ESA’s Juice mission to Jupiter.

This heavy launcher more than doubled the mass-to-orbit capacity of its predecessor, Ariane 4, which flew from 1988 until 2003 as a favorite of the telecommunications industry which required large payloads sent into very high geosynchronous orbits. Ariane 5’s capacity enables it to orbit two large telecommunications satellites on a single launch, or to push large and heavy payloads into deep space.