Ariane 6 has lift off! Historic rocket launches Europe back into space

Finally, Europe has regained independent access to space. The continent reestablished a sovereign launch capacity on Tuesday with the maiden flight of the Ariane 6 rocket. However, the mission didn’t go entirely to plan. Built to take satellites into orbit, Ariane 6 lifted off from the European Spaceport in French Guiana at 16:00 local time (21:00 CEST). The rocket then soared into the cosmos with a payload of satellites and experiments. Ariane 6 then released the fight batch of cargo. But a problem struck before the final payloads could be delivered. The launch team blamed an anomaly in the rocket’s…

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