Ariane 6’s first commercial flight a success!

It’s a historic moment for the European space industry. After a successful inaugural launch in July 2024, the Ariane 6 rocket has reached a new milestone with its first commercial flight Thursday, March 6, 2025. This historic launch was carried out on behalf of the French Defense Procurement Agency (DGA) and the French National Center for Space Studies (CNES) for the French Air and Space Force’s Space Command (CDE). 

Launched from the Guiana Space Center at 13:24 local time, the rocket developed by ArianeGroup (a joint venture between Safran and Airbus) carried important cargo for the first time: the CSO-3 military observation satellite. During this first commercial flight, the satellite was put into orbit at an altitude of 800 km, completing the French Ministry of Defense’s CSO (Composante Spatiale Optique) system. This constellation also includes CSO-1 and CSO-2, launched in 2018 and 2020, and serves as the French armed forces’ eyes in space. 

The success of this first commercial flight is eminently strategic for Europe because it paves the way for independent space access, bolstering its sovereignty and its competitiveness in the very challenging space market. With Ariane 6, Europe now has a second operational launcher, alongside the Vega-C rocket developed by the ESA, which carried out its first flight in December 2024. 

And Ariane 6 isn’t planning on stopping there: four more launches are scheduled by the end of 2025 and its order book includes no fewer than 32 missions! These include the MetOp-SG-A1 weather satellite, which is scheduled for launch in August, the Sentinel-1D satellite from Copernicus, the European Earth observation program, and two satellites from the Galileo constellation, the European GPS.

Ariane 6 is set to reach full capacity by 2027 with a business model built on four institutional launches and six commercial launches annually.

As prime contractor of the Ariane 6 program, ArianeGroup, which is owned by Safran and Airbus, cements its place as the global leader in space access. But the Group’s contribution doesn’t stop there: several Safran companies also provide critical equipment, including valves for the first stage, the Vulcain engine (both Safran Aero Boosters), and the inertial guidance system (Safran Electronics & Defense). Find out more about them in the infographic below, “Safran on board Ariane 6”!