Europe's Ariane 6 heavy-lift rocket launched for the third time ever tonight (Aug. 12), sending an advanced weather and climate satellite to orbit.
The powerful Ariane 6 lifted off from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana today at 8:37 p.m. EDT (9:37 p.m. local time in Kourou; 0037 GMT on Aug. 13).
Ariane 6, the successor to the recently retired Ariane 5, is operated by the French company Arianespace on behalf of the European Space Agency. The rocket debuted with a test flight in July 2024 and flew again this past March, successfully sending a French spy satellite to Earth orbit on the rocket's first-ever commercial mission.
Flight number three occured tonight. The payload this time was Metop-SGA1, an 8,900-pound (4,040-kilogram) weather satellite that will be operated by the international group EUMETSAT (European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites).
Ariane 6 deployed Metop-SGA1 into a polar orbit about 500 miles (800 kilometers) above Earth 64 minutes after liftoff tonight as planned, Arianespace announced via X.
After a checkout period, the satellite will start using its six onboard instruments to gather a variety of weather and climate data. It will continue to do so across its operational life expected to last 7.5 years.
"The satellite will take global observation of weather and climate from a polar orbit to a new level, providing high-resolution observations of temperature, precipitation, clouds, winds, sea ice, aerosols, pollution, soil moisture, volcanic dust and a multitude of other parameters," Arianespace representatives wrote in a mission description.
Metop-SGA1, which was built by Airbus Defence and Space, is the first of six planned satellites in the Metop Second Generation constellation.
Tonight's liftoff was the 355th to date for Arianespace, which also currently operates a smaller rocket called the Vega C. Metop-SGA1 was the 15th spacecraft the company has launched for EUMETSAT and the 21st meteorological satellite it has lofted overall, according to the Arianespace mission description.
Editor's note: This story was updated at 8:45 p.m. EDT on Aug. 12 with news of a successful liftoff, then again at 1:35 a.m. EDT on Aug. 13 with news of satellite deployment.
