Watch Europe’s highly effective Ariane 6 rocket launch immediately for the 4th time ever

Europe’s Ariane 6 heavy-lift rocket is scheduled to launch immediately (Nov. 4) for the fourth time ever, and you may watch the motion stay.

An Ariane 6 is scheduled to carry off from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana immediately at 4:03 p.m. EST (2103 GMT; 6:03 p.m. native time in Kourou), carrying the Sentinel-1D Earth-observation satellite tv for pc to low Earth orbit (LEO).

You can watch the motion stay right here at Space.com courtesy of Arianespace, or directly through the France-based firm, which operates the Ariane 6 for the European Space Agency (ESA). Coverage will start about half-hour earlier than launch.

The Ariane 6 is the successor to the Ariane 5, which retired in July 2023 after 27 years of service. The new rocket debuted with a checkered July 2024 take a look at flight, then adopted that up with two absolutely profitable operational launches, in March and August of this yr.

Ariane 6 will go for three in a row today with the launch of Sentinel-1D, which is part of the European Union’s Copernicus Earth-observation program.

The Sentinel-1 series of satellites capture detailed radar imagery of Earth, “performing in all weathers, day and night,” ESA officials wrote in a Sentinel-1D mission description. “This service is vital for disaster response teams, environmental agencies, maritime authorities, climate scientists — and other users who depend on frequent updates of critical data.”

Three Sentinel-1 satellites have launched to this point, and two of these stay operational (Sentinel-1A and Sentinel-1C). Sentinel-1D will substitute Sentinel-1A, which has been eyeing Earth from orbit for 11 years — nicely past its deliberate operational lifetime, in keeping with ESA.

“The Sentinel-1D satellite will work in tandem with Sentinel-1C to generate timely data,” company officers wrote within the description. “Both satellites have a C-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) instrument on board, which captures high-resolution imagery of Earth’s surface. They are also equipped with Automatic Identification System (AIS) instruments to improve detection and tracking of ships.”

‘Today’s launch will likely be Europe’s fifth orbital mission of 2025. In addition to the 2 earlier Ariane 6 flights, Arianespace’s Vega C smallsat launcher has aced two missions up to now this yr, in April and July.

For context, SpaceX has launched 140 missions of its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket in 2025. More than 70% of these flights have been dedicated to constructing out the corporate’s Starlink megaconstellation in LEO.