Ariane 6 test
An Ariane 6 upper stage fires its Vinci engine during an Oct. 5 test at a DLR facility in Lampoldshausen, Germany.

ArianeGroup has started static-fire tests of the upper stage of the Ariane 6 rocket, a key step in the development of the vehicle whose first launch remains uncertain.

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Jeff Foust has more than a decade of experience writing about space policy, entrepreneurial ventures and regulatory affairs. In 2001, he established spacetoday.net to aggregate and summarize the day's space-related news stories. In 2003, he started The...