The Exploration Company has confirmed that it is in the process of re-baselining its Mission Bikini demonstrator back to Ariane 6.
In February 2022, the European Space Agency released a list detailing the payloads that were expected to be flown aboard the maiden Ariane 6 flight. At the time, Ariane 6 was still expected to be launched for the first time in late 2022. In June 2022, Director General Josef Aschbacher made an impromptu announcement during a BBC interview that Ariane 6 would not fly until “some time” in 2023. ESA clarified in October 2022 that the launch wouldn’t occur until late 2023. A year later, in August 2023, the flight had slipped to 2024.
Following ESA’s announcement that the maiden flight of Ariane 6 would not occur until 2024, The Exploration Company announced in September 2023 that it had shifted its 40-kilogram Mission Bikini demonstrator to an ISRO PSLV rideshare flight. When the announcement was made, the rideshare mission was expected to be launched in January 2024. By March 2024, the company, through its CEO Hélène Huby, during a Bloomberg interview, revealed that the Bikini demonstrator mission was slated for a mid-June launch. At the time, it was assumed that this meant that the PSLV flight would be occurring in June. However, it’s now clear that this was the first confirmation that the mission was returning to the Ariane 6 payload manifest.
On 14 March 2024, ESA published an updated list of the payloads that would be flown aboard the maiden Ariane 6 flight. The Bikini demonstrator was one of two reentry capsules listed, the other being the ArianeGroup SpaceCase SC-X01. Soon after the announcement, European Spaceflight requested a comment from The Exploration Company confirming whether or not the mission had shifted back to Ariane 6. On 29 March, the company finally responded, stating, “Mission Bikini is currently being re-baslined on Ariane 6 because we want to launch it on the first available launcher.”
The Exploration Company primarily utilizes LinkedIn to publish updates on the progress of its development activities. The company’s last post about the Bikini demonstrator was published in May 2023, announcing that the capsule had successfully passed a vacuum chamber test with the aim of validating the adhesive used to secure its thermal protection panels. This test would appear to indicate a vehicle close to being flight-ready. As a result, when it is eventually launched in June or July 2024, it may have been collecting dust at The Exploration Company’s headquarters for as long as twelve months, awaiting a launch.
