12 February 2026 year, a more powerful version of the European Ariane rocket 6 successfully placed the Amazon Leo group of broadband satellites into orbit on its first launch. Ariane 64 started from Kuru, French Guiana, as part of the Arianespace mission VA267.
The European heavy launch vehicle has demonstrated its ability to perform the most difficult missions of deploying large-scale groups. The launch was the first of 18 missions, which Arianespace must fulfill for Amazon, the company's largest commercial customer. A more powerful variant of Ariane is needed for these missions 64, as well as an elongated main fairing in length 20 meters, which is also used for the first time at this launch.
The European Space Agency emphasized, that the launch is part of the agency's strategy to recover from the "carrier crisis" a few years ago, when Europe could not launch its own payloads. The problem was solved thanks to the commissioning of Ariane 62 in 2024 year and the return to flight of the Vega C rocket later that year. Other Ariane upgrades are planned in the future 6, specifically replacing the P120C solid fuel engines on the boosters with the larger P160Cs, which should increase the performance of the rocket by 10-15 %.
Currently, the company launched into orbit 212 satellites through this launch and previous Atlas flights 5 i Falcon 9. However, Amazon is way behind schedule, necessary to fulfill the conditions of the license of the Federal Communications Commission of the USA: half of 3232 satellites should be in orbit by the end of July. 30 In January, Amazon filed a request to extend this deadline for two years or to cancel it completely, citing delays with launches. Amazon also said, that will buy more 10 Falcon launches 9 to accelerate the deployment of the group and will increase the number of orders for Blue Origin New Glenn rockets from 12 to 24.
Source: https://spacenews.com