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\t\t\t\t\t\t04\/07\/2024<\/span> A network of ground stations around the world, including two owned by ESA, will track the debut flight of Europe\u2019s new Ariane 6 rocket. They will monitor key phases of the flight and gather telemetry and video that will be used to analyse the rocket\u2019s performance and optimise future launches.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n As Ariane 6 thunders and roars as it rises into the sky from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, activity on the ground continues. The launcher control team in Kourou monitor an influx of data from ground stations scattered along the rocket\u2019s flight path that receive telemetry as it passes overhead at up to 28 000 km per hour.<\/p>\n \u201cGround station tracking is the only way to get any information from a launcher and ensure safety on the ground,\u201d says Gerhard Billig, Launcher Tracking Service Manager at ESA\u2019s ESOC operations centre in Germany.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s crucial to monitor the health and performance of the launcher during major flight milestones, such as phases of active thrust and payload separation. Once a launch is complete, these tracking data can be used to fine-tune the launcher\u2019s performance, making every future launch even more precise and reliable.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n ESA\u2019s stations in Santa Maria, Portugal, and New Norcia, Australia, supported many Ariane 5 launch campaigns and will return to action for the debut flight of its successor, Ariane 6, this month.<\/p>\n They will form part of the \u2018downrange tracking network\u2019 for the first flight of Ariane 6 under the responsibility and organisation of the French Space Agency, CNES. The ESA stations will join stations from CNES and other partners at Galliot and Saint-Jean du Maroni (France), Bermuda (UK),\u00a0Aussaguel (France), and Lucknow (India). Future flights will be supported by different stations depending on their trajectory.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Initially established to communicate with satellites, ESA\u2019s ground station network \u2013 Estrack \u2013 was expanded to support rocket launches in 2008 with the addition of a ground station and 5.5 m antenna on Santa Maria Island in the Azores archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean.<\/p>\n From here, the station has visibility over a large portion of the Atlantic Ocean. During its debut flight, Ariane 6 will fly northeast over the Atlantic and Santa Maria will track it during the first engine cut-off of its upper-stage.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Around 50 minutes after launch, Ariane 6 will appear above the horizon in Western Australia. ESA\u2019s New Norcia station in Western Australia is home to one of the agency\u2019s 35 m deep space dishes, which is used to communicate with missions such as Juice and Solar Orbiter while they are many millions of km away.<\/p>\n However, the size and technology required to track these distant spacecraft is not ideal for tracking fast-moving rockets.\u00a0Tracking launchers on trajectories like that of the first Ariane 6 is instead carried out by the site\u2019s smaller, 4.5 m dish.<\/p>\n Known as \u2018New Norcia 2\u2019, the smaller antenna is more agile and has a wider field of view, allowing it to lock on to the signal from a launcher even when its exact location in the sky is not known. It can also carry out rapid sky searches in case a launcher over- or underperforms.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \u201cCompared to a satellite, a launcher is a very dynamic object: it can rotate and thrust as it passes overhead,\u201d says Gerhard Billig. \u201cAs a result, the radio signal we receive on the ground can fluctuate a lot. Our antennas must be able to automatically track the rocket wherever it goes, and our teams must be able to react very quickly to any contingency to ensure no data are lost.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe have been hard at work preparing Santa Maria and New Norcia for the first Ariane 6 launch. During the flight, we will receive multiple different streams of data, one of which will be video that will be processed at the ground stations and forwarded to the team at the launch site for analysis and live distribution.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \u201cI was lucky enough to watch an Ariane 5 launch in person,\u201d says Billig. \u201cIt was an amazing experience; I distinctly remember how the sound from the launch hit me unexpectedly as, by the time it arrived, the rocket was already high in the sky. We are very much looking forward to putting our work into action for the first flight of its successor, Ariane 6.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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