Ariane 6 Upper Stage Deorbitation

Kurzfassung

As part of Ariane 6 development activities, compliance with Space Debris Requirements is being demonstrated. This report focusses one aspect of the compliance: “R9- Operational Requirements: Launcher stages shall satisfy one of the following conditions: a) A direct re-entry shall be performed as part of the launcher sequence” Various deorbitation scenarios were investigated, and an optimal re-entry strategy concerning flexibility and mass penalty was selected to be: • Boost performed by Vinci engine at 90 kN, • 3600 s coast time, • Burn angle 120o, and • ΔV 60 m/s. The propellant budget for this manoeuvre was found to be 403 kg (including reserves and 20% margin). The modelling of the direct (controlled) deorbit of the Ariane 6 Upper Stage was performed using the ESA software DRAMA and the DLR-SART software tool dust.