A successful first commercial flight for Ariane 6
Following its successful maiden flight in July 2024, Ariane 6 completed its second mission from Europe’s spaceport on Thursday 6 March at 13:24 local time in French Guiana. Its payload, the CSO-3 satellite, was placed in sun-synchronous orbit, around 800 km from Earth.
On 6 March 2025 at 13:24 local time in Kourou (16:24 UTC, 17:24 CET), for its second flight and first commercial mission, Ariane 6 powered into space from Europe’s spaceport, carrying the French CSO-3 (optical space component) military observation satellite on behalf of the French Defence Procurement Agency (DGA) and the French Space Agency (CNES) for the French Air and Space Force’s Space Command (CDE).
CSO-3 joins the two other military satellites already in orbit, and will supply crucial data for defence and security purposes.
For this first commercial mission, the Ariane 6 launch vehicle was in Ariane 62 configuration, with 2 boosters and a short fairing.

Direction générale de l'armement (DGA)
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