Powerful Ariane 6 rocket launches European weather satellite to orbit (video)
Europe's most powerful rocket will fly today (Aug.
27), and you can watch the action live.
An Ariane 6 is scheduled to launch the MTG-I2 weather satellite from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana today (Aug.
27), during a 2.5-hour window that opens at 4:10 p.m.
EDT (2010 GMT; 5:10 p.m. local time in Kourou).
You can watch it live here at Space.com, courtesy of Arianespace, the French company that operates the Ariane 6.
Coverage will begin about 25 minutes before liftoff.
You can also follow live directly via Arianespace .
An Ariane 6 rocket launches 32 Amazon Leo satellites to orbit from French Guiana on Feb.
12, 2026. (Image credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace-ArianeGroup/Optique Video du CSG-P.
Piron) The 8,400-pound (3,800 kilograms) MTG-I2 is the second imaging satellite in the Meteosat Third Generation network (hence the name).
It will complete the three-spacecraft network in geostationary orbit , which lies 22,236 miles (35,786 kilometers) above Earth.
Its companions, MTG-I1 and MTS-S1, launched in December 2022 and July 2025 , respectively.
MTG-I1 is an imaging craft and MTS-S1 is a "sounder," using an infrared instrument to probe different layers of Earth's atmosphere .
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