The tech-demo phase of Ariane 6 is still in progress but has shown an unexpected result which will only affect the end of the mission.
On the webcast, they stated that the Auxiliary Propulsion Unit (APU) switched off shortly after it it powered up after SECO-2. Without the APU, they have no way to settle the propellants in the tanks, and thus can’t reignite the upper stage for the final burn.
From the live camera feed, it looks as though the upper stage was spinning, so there may have been some loss of control as well.
Seems like they might be between ground stations right now. Haven’t seen live video from the upper stage for a few minutes. Telemetry still looks good though.
FYI to everyone: there are several fake “ESA Official” YouTube channels running deepfaked Elon crypto scam streams that claim to be “Ariane 6 Launch Stream”.
They’re nothing new, but sharing in case anyone hasn’t seen it before. Those aren’t real streams!
What browser are you using? Some browser features have caused issues like this for me in the past. Specifically privacy-focused browsers like LibreWolf and Vanadium.
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