SUCCESS FOR ARIANE 6 VA263 FLIGHT

Colleferro (Rome), March 6th 2025 – The Ariane 6 launcher has successfully completed the VA263 flight from the Guiana Space Centre, putting in orbit the CSO-3 satellite for the French Armed Forces.

Avio is partner of the program providing the solid rocket boosters P120C and the liquid oxygen turbopumps for the core stage Vulcain 2.1 engine and the upper stage Vinci engine. The P120C motors provided more than 80% of thrust at liftoff and had an optimal performance. Avio will continue to provide those boosters, which will be used in a two or four configuration, depending on the payload to be transported in orbit. 

Avio is working on a more powerful version of the booster, called P160, which will increase the thrust of the launcher and its payload capacity, to accomplish the missions for the Amazon Kuiper satellite constellation among the other things. The P160 will be the world largest carbon fiber monolithic motor and will also be used on Vega C.