Tootfinder

And now on #Ariane flight VA267 - of the first Ariane 6 with 4 boosters.

And all 32 #AmazonLeo satellites have been deployed by the first #Ariane 64: good news for Arianespace and Amazon but probably bad news for astronomy as the previous satellites of this #megaconstellation have proven to be brighter than they should be. As this diagram from the recent paper "Brightness Characterization and Modeling for Amazon Leo Satellites" - https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.07708 - shows they are almost always brighter than the informally established 7 mag. limit. And there are no indications that the design of the 32 added to the constellation today had been modified to make them dimmer ... while the next Ariane launch will carry more of them.

The first #Ariane 64 flight is well underway (and has just reached the target orbit)- here is the booster separation from an onboard cam, see https://skyweek.wordpress.com/2026/02/04/allgemeines-live-blog-ab-dem-4-februar-2026/#Feb12 (scroll down ... a lot) for more timesteps from the webcast.

During the ESA Director General’s 2026 annual press briefing today - #Ariane 6 reached 5 successful launches earlier than many other heavy launchers. (This stands in stark contrast to the table 1b of https://planet4589.org/space/papers/space25.pdf in which Europe's contribution to the global launch successes in 2025 has been minuscule.)

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on BBCRadio3's #ThroughTheNight
Jaap Prinsen, Maarten Karres, Ariane Veelo-Karres & Carl Reinecke:
🎵 Trio for oboe, horn and piano in A minor, Op 188
#JaapPrinsen #MaartenKarres #ArianeVeeloKarres #CarlReinecke