- Arianespace will launch Exotrail’s spacevan on board an Ariane 6, as an auxiliary passenger.
- This spacevan is the geostationary version of Exotrail’s Orbital Transfer Vehicle (OTV), due to be placed in Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO) in the second half of 2026.
- This first “GTO to GEO” mission for the spacevan, will demonstrate a new capacity to bring small satellites up to the geostationary arc, for Exotrail’s customer, the French space agency CNES, as one of the projects supported by the France 2030 national investment plan.
- This new mission showcases Ariane 6’s unique versatility, flexibility and modularity.
Arianespace has signed a launch contract with Exotrail, an end-to-end space mobility operator, for the first GEO mission of its spacevan vehicle. This vehicle will be an auxiliary passenger on board the heavy-lift Ariane 64, version of the Ariane 6 launcher with four solid boosters, which will be launched from Europe’s Spaceport, in French Guiana, in the second half of 2026. The spacevan, which will be placed in a Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO), is a servicing satellite notably designed to transport and deploy other satellites (as an Orbital Transfer Vehicle – OTV), or to host payloads in space. By orbiting the vehicle as an auxiliary payload, Ariane 6 demonstrates its capacity to accomplish complex missions for a variety of customers.
“Launching Exotrail’s spacevan highlights Ariane 6’s capability to meet our customers’ specific expectations and needs, bringing together unrivalled flexibility, versatility, and tailored services”, said Stéphane Israël, CEO of Arianespace. “As an auxiliary payload on a flight scheduled for the second half of 2026, the spacevan will benefit from Ariane 6’s performance and capacity to reach the geostationary transfer orbit. Through this launch, Arianespace is also pleased to contribute to the development of space logistics and in-space mobility services, a very promising emerging market for the future. We thank Exotrail, CNES and France 2030 for their trust.”
“With this mission, we aim at opening new possibilities for the growing demand of smaller birds needing to reach the geostationary arc”, added Jean-Luc Maria, CEO of Exotrail. “For this 4th spacevan mission, Ariane 6 is the perfect match. The partnership between the European heavy launcher and our servicing satellite addresses one of the ambitions tackled by France 2030, which is extending the European sovereignty of access to space, up to the GEO arc.”
Ariane 6’s successful inaugural launch took place on July 9th, 2024. Ariane 6 is designed to launch a variety of customer mission profiles, including LEO constellations, GEO telecom and broadcast satellites, MEO Galileo navigation payloads, and other European institutional secure communication and science missions.
Europe’s new heavy-lift rocket has been designed from the outset to be scalable and able to integrate, during its life and on a regular basis, new technologies. Ariane 6’s incremental development is intended to continuously improve the performance of the launch solutions offered by Arianespace and always better fulfil the needs of both institutional and commercial customers. Ariane 6 is a European Space Agency (ESA) programme for which ESA is the overall procuring entity and launch system architect. As lead contractor and design authority for the launcher, ArianeGroup is responsible for development and production together with its industrial partners.