Installing first passengers on Ariane 6

Installing payloads on Ariane 6 at the encapsulation hall in Europe's Spaceport, French Guiana, 4 June 2024. 

From established players like NASA to students designing their first ever satellite, these missions will measure gamma rays, track wildlife, test self-healing solar cells, confirm the theory of black body radiation and more. There's a smart-farming satellite, a radio beacon demonstrator, experiments that will remain attached to the rocket's payload ‘adaptor’ and even capsules destined to reenter Earth’s atmosphere to test new materials – Ariane 6’s first flight will be packed with technology as its first payloads are sent on their way into space. 

This plethora of missions is being supplied by three types of organisations: commercial companies, space agencies and universities. Together they have been building hardware to test and prove their technology works in space; satellites to measure weather on Earth or in the Solar System; study the Sun and perform other science experiments. 

Four deployers, including the multi-CubeSat deployers RAMI and EXOpod, will release satellites away from the Ariane 6 upper stage.  

The two reentry capsules and nine satellites that are set to fly free are placed at the top of the rocket in order of their release, perfectly timed to be set on their way after leaving their Ariane 6 nest, 600 km above Earth. 

Cubesat deployers are like mini launchers in their own right, orchestrating a series of spring-loaded ejections to shoot one or multiple miniature satellites from the Ariane launcher at the right time, speed and in the right direction to set them on their way. As the CubeSats don’t have their own propulsion, they will stay in the same orbit Ariane 6 releases them into.