In Kourou, French Guyana, the European Space Agency launched the first Ariane 6 rocket into Earth orbit in front of the world’s cameras on Tuesday, July 9, 2024. Behind the scenes, hundreds of engineers were excited and proud to see the rocket take off perfectly after years of work.
ArcelorMittal Rails & Special Sections can also boast of having participated in this major project by producing, in its Rodange mill in Luxembourg, exceptional quality overhead crane rails allowing the building around the rocket to move to propel it into space.
A mobile gantry rolling over ArcelorMittal crane rails
The main structures include the launcher assembly building, the mobile gantry and launch pad. The mobile gantry is a 90-metre-high mobile metallic structure weighing 8,200 tonnes when fully equipped, that rolls on rails.
The role of the gantry allows access to the rocket launcher and protects it from the outside environment during the construction period, until takeoff. It thus allowed the teams to work for as long as possible in complete safety, for themselves and for the installation.
At the end of its construction and to facilitate its take-off, it is the entire building that moves and not the rocket, an innovative and ambitious system made possible thanks to our rails.
Rolling at 7 meters per minute, the gantry can then gradually release the rocket that must give Europe back its space independence.
There are no limits in terms of final applications for our ArcelorMittal crane rails!!
More info about this project: https://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Space_Transportation/Launch_vehicles/Ariane_6_overview
