Europe's new heavy-lift rocket has successfully launched a French satellite into orbit: a sign that Europe can enter space on its own

Europe's new heavy rocket Ariane 6 carried out its first commercial mission on Thursday, smoothly launching and putting a French military reconnaissance satellite into orbit. The success of the mission means that Europe can now put large satellites into orbit on its own.

Ariane 6 was originally scheduled to make its first flight in 2020, but was repeatedly delayed until its first launch last July. Its first commercial mission put the CSO-3 satellite into orbit about 800 kilometers (500 miles) above Earth. CSO-3 has been waiting since 2022 to complete a network of three French military imaging satellites, the first two of which were launched on Soyuz rockets in 2018 and 2020. But the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war in 2022, Russia withdrew the Soyuz rocket, resulting in the CSO-3 has been unable to fly.

Ariane 6 was scheduled to launch on Monday, but a previous attempt to launch the mission on Monday was called off 30 minutes before liftoff because of a functioning valve on one of the refueling tubes. After several delays, including a last-minute delay on Monday, the heavy lift lifted off from the European Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, just before 1:30 p.m. local time on Thursday and, about an hour after lift-off, successfully placed the satellite into orbit, marking the mission's success. The high-profile launch comes at a time when Europe is seeking to bolster its defenses as the Trump administration, which has soured relations with Russia and directly suspended military aid to Ukraine, raises questions about whether Europe can still count on the United States as a security partner under the new U.S. president, Donald Trump.

French General Philippe Steininger said Europe had only 10 military satellites, five of them French and five Italian, compared with "hundreds" by the United States and China. Speaking in Kourou earlier this week, Tony Tork Nielsen, director of space transport at the European Space Agency, said: "Europe must ensure its own security." . He called for the annual number of Ariane 6 launches to be increased to 12, compared with five planned for this year.

Because of the long delay before Ariane 6, Europe found itself unable to launch a space mission on its own. The Ariane 6 predecessor, Ariane 5, was retired in 2023, Russia also withdrew its Soyuz rockets, and an accident grounded the smaller Vega-C launcher for two years. But with Vega-C's return to flight in December and the first commercial launch of Ariane 6, Europe's space effort hopes to turn a page in the crisis.

European Union leaders pledged at an emergency summit on Thursday to work together to bolster the continent's defenses and free up hundreds of billions of euros for security. With the Trump administration signaling a growing conviction that they will now have to fend for themselves, countries that have dithered on defense spending for decades held emergency talks in Brussels to explore new ways to bolster security and ensure future protection for Ukraine.

All in all, as a result of the Trump administration's actions, the EU has become more united than ever before, and EU countries have begun to increase their own defense and military spending and aid to Ukraine to cope with possible dangers in the future.