Europe’s Ariane 6 rocket is set to make a powerful debut in a commercial role Thursday, when it launches with a new equipment configuration from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. The new configuration is designed to fly with four boosters around the rocket’s core stage, carrying Amazon’s internet satellite payload into orbit.
The effort centers on Ariane 64, the name given to Ariane 6 when it flies with four boosters. The added booster thrust is intended to increase the rocket’s lift into low Earth orbit to about 21.6 metric tons (23.8 tons), which the AP report says is more than double what the vehicle can carry when using two boosters.
Ariane 64’s design is built around the performance of its solid rocket boosters. The boosters consume 142,000 kilograms (313,056 pounds) of solid propellant in just over two minutes before burning out, according to AP’s breakdown of the rocket’s technology.
The mission’s planned payload is also a key change in role for the European launcher. Thursday’s launch is set to place 32 Amazon Leo satellites into orbit, AP reported, with Amazon having begun launching internet satellites in 2025 as it moves to become a major player in the large-constellation broadband market currently dominated by SpaceX’s Starlink.
Amazon’s broader goal is to deploy more than 3,200 satellites, AP said. The company’s plan also places it in the same competitive arena as other major launch and constellation operators, including SpaceX, the AP report noted, and Amazon is linked to billionaire Jeff Bezos, who also runs rocket company Blue Origin.
Ariane 6 has flown previously using a two-booster configuration, with AP reporting that the rocket has completed five flights using two boosters, all successful, including its maiden launch in July 2024. Thursday’s flight would mark the sixth Ariane 6 launch and the first time the four-booster configuration carries a commercial customer.
The AP report frames Ariane 6 as a multinational industrial program supported by 13 European Space Agency nations. Building the rocket, the report said, involves about 600 subcontractors working under ArianGroup, with the core stage assembled in Les Mureaux west of Paris and the upper stage built in a factory in Bremen, Germany; AP also said there are roughly 300,000 pieces in one rocket.
The vehicle’s major components also make a trans-Atlantic journey to French Guiana, AP said, with the core stage, upper stage and boosters crossing the Atlantic on a cargo ship equipped with sails to reduce emissions and save fuel. AP added that Ariane 64 is 62 meters (203 feet) high, with a core stage 5.4 meters (17.7 feet) wide.
On the launch trajectory, Ariane 64 uses multiple engines across flight phases, AP reported. It is powered by one main engine at the base of its core stage that uses supercooled hydrogen and oxygen as fuel, and then relies on a second engine that ignites once the upper stage escapes Earth’s gravity and can re-ignite up to four times to insert the satellites into their precise orbits. AP also said the mission is expected to last 1 hour, 54 minutes, from liftoff to separation of all satellites.
The mission’s setup is closely tied to the satellite constellation effort by Amazon Leo. MSI previously reported that Ariane 64 was set for its launch from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, as Thursday’s flight shifts Ariane 6 further into the commercial satellite-launch arena.