Canopée Sets Sail for Ariane 6 flight VA267: a new milestone for Arianespace and Amazon Leo

Arianespace and Amazon Leo marked an important milestone in their historic multi-launch agreement to deploy satellites for Amazon Leo’s constellation last week. On Friday December 5^th, Canopée — the sail-powered cargo ship transporting the stages of Ariane 6 from continental Europe to French Guiana — departed from Bordeaux. Canopée began its journey at sea for mission VA267, a mission of many firsts: it will be the first flight of the Ariane 64, the Ariane 6 with four boosters, as well as the first Arianespace launch dedicated to the Amazon Leo constellation.

Together with the arrival of the first batch of Amazon Leo satellites in French Guiana earlier in November, this departure of Canopée from Bordeaux marks the operational kick-off of the inaugural Ariane 64 launch campaign.

For this milestone, representatives from Arianespace, ArianeGroup, Amazon and Amazon Leo gathered in the Bordeaux Port, joined by media and institutional guests. The event highlighted this historic partnership, offered a closer look at the Canopée vessel, and provided insights into the preparations and upcoming steps leading to flight VA267 early next year.

“This mission will mark the first of 18 launches we will conduct for Amazon Leo,” said David Cavaillolès, Arianespace CEO. “Canopée is now beginning a tour of several European ports to load the Ariane 6 stages and components before heading to French Guiana, where the launch campaign will truly begin. Once the vessel arrives, our teams will offload the Ariane 6, bring it to Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, and expertly integrate the Amazon Leo payloads with the launch vehicle. We are honored and excited to support Amazon’s vision and to help expand access to reliable internet worldwide.”

“We already have six successful Amazon Leo missions under our belt and seeing Canopée depart with Ariane 6 brings us one step closer to our first launch with Arianespace,” said Rajeev Badyal, Vice President of Amazon Leo. “Adding a heavy-lift rocket like Ariane 6 to the manifest will allow us to deploy more satellites at a time and help accelerate deployment plans for Amazon Leo—we look forward to continuing to work with the Arianespace team as we prepare for that inaugural mission and subsequent launches on Ariane 6.”

A historic Arianespace-Amazon Leo partnership

– With 18 Ariane 6 launches under contract, Amazon Leo is to date one of Arianespace’s major customers, driven by the long-term mission of delivering fast, reliable internet to customers beyond the reach of existing networks. Arianespace is proud to support Amazon Leo in this mission.

– Mission VA267 will inaugurate the most powerful version of the Ariane 6 rocket: the Ariane 64, equipped with four boosters, highly flexible, and able to deliver over 20 tons to a Low Earth orbit. A configuration which will unveil new capabilities for Ariane 6, notably enabling multi-orbit deployments, ideal for bringing to orbit large constellations such as Amazon Leo.

The Canopée route: a key step before launch

Before crossing the Atlantic, Canopée performs a coordinated sequence of stops near major ArianeGroup industrial sites across Europe to embark the Ariane 6 launcher elements. ArianeGroup, as the industrial prime contractor for Ariane 6, is responsible for the design, development, production, and integration of the launcher:

• Bordeaux: loading of elements of the solid boosters, produced at ArianeGroup’s sites in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, with additional components manufactured across Europe, notably in Italy and Spain
• Le Havre: loading of the main stage assembled by ArianeGroup in Les Mureaux
• Rotterdam: loading of the fairing halves produced in Switzerland
• Bremen: loading of the upper stage assembled by ArianeGroup in Vernon

Once fully loaded, the vessel begins an approximately 12-day transatlantic journey to French Guiana.

Find out more:

– About Canopée the sailing boat playing an essential role in the Ariane 6 ecosystem. Purposely-built for Ariane 6 by ArianeGroup, its innovative hybrid design reduces emissions by up to 30% on each transatlantic crossing, supporting our commitment to a more responsible access to space.

– About Ariane 6, its performances, configurations and capacities, with our interactive Ariane 6 3D graph. Ariane 6 is Europe’s heavy-lift launcher, designed to be modular, flexible and versatile, enabling Arianespace to effectively launch to space our customers’ ambitions.