Europe’s Ariane 6 rocket all set for March 6 lift-off

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PARIS: With a valve fault halting Monday’s launch just 30 minutes before take-off, Arianespace has rescheduled Europe’s Ariane 6 rocket to blast off on Thursday from French Guiana, carrying the French military’s CSO-3 satellite in a mission vital to Europe’s independent space ambitions.

The rocket was slated to lift off on Monday, but was postponed due to an “anomaly”.

After reviewing the ground equipment, the company said it is now targeting a launch on “6 March 2025 at 1:24 pm local time in Kourou” (1624 GMT).

“Ariane 6 and its passenger, the CSO-3 satellite, are in stable and safe conditions,” the company said in a statement.

Monday’s launch from Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana was scrapped just 30 minutes before the scheduled lift-off, due to a valve malfunction on one of the launcher’s fuelling pipes.

It was the latest of several postponements for the rocket as Europe seeks to secure independent access to space and reduce its reliance on the US.

The mission aims to take the CSO-3 satellite into space, completing a network of three French military imaging satellites, with the first two launched in 2018 and 2020 on Russian Soyuz rockets.

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