“I was convinced that Archangel Gabriel appeared to me and I have already started to interpret what signs heaven is sending me to change my life,” wrote one Facebook user about the mysterious lights in the sky visible on the night from Tuesday to Wednesday. She was not alone in this. “At times like an angel in the sky,” we read in another comment under the post on the fanpage “Z głowy w gwiazdach”. Others had associations with UFOs. It is hard to be surprised by such opinions, because the object spinning in the sky looked really special. Fortunately, we do not have to guess what thousands of people saw that night. We know that it was an Ariane 6 rocket.
Mysterious spinning disks in the sky. Ariane 6 rocket maneuvers
On Tuesday, the European Space Agency’s Ariane 6 rocket lifted off from the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. The rocket will replace the Ariane 5, which will be retired after 117 flights over the past 30 years. The effects that could be seen in the sky were related to the operation of the maneuvering engines.
“During the preparation of a rocket for deorbiting, characteristic traces may appear in the sky. These traces are usually condensed traces of exhaust gases that the rocket or its components leave in the atmosphere as a result of the operation of engines or deorbiting processes” –
The trails visible in the sky are exhaust gases from rocket engines. They consist mainly of water vapor and other combustion products and condense in the colder layers of the atmosphere, creating visible condensation trails.
The exhaust gases illuminated by the Sun gave an amazing effect!
– commented Karol Wójcicki, the host of “With His Head in the Stars”.
When a rocket or its components reenter the atmosphere, the engines are fired to reduce the orbital speed, thus initiating deorbit. This time, however, the engines were switched on for a different reason. “Ariane 6 experienced a failure and attempts were made to stabilize it. Unfortunately, this was not fully successful, which meant that the mission could not be completed. bringing it back into the atmosphere – the rocket is still in orbit,” Wójcicki wrote on Facebook around 8:30 on Wednesday.
Arian 6 had a failure. But the mission was still considered a success
The Ariane 6 has been in development for nearly a decade. The rocket was originally set to debut in 2020, but technical and external challenges, including the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, have delayed the launch several times.
Despite the problems, ESA considers the mission a success, with the failure affecting only its final stage. Ariane 6 sent nine cubesats into low Earth orbit, two return capsules that were to undergo an endurance test during a fall into Earth’s atmosphere.
The European Space Agency’s new rocket is designed to provide “autonomous access to space – and all the science, Earth observation, technology development and commercial opportunities that come with it.”
Source: Gazeta
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