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On 23 November 2023 the Ariane 6 rocket test model at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana was prepared for a combined hot-fire test to test its core stage and main engine for eight minutes of firing – the full duration of a launch.

The mobile building weighs 8200 000 kg – heavier than France’s Eiffel Tower. Its platforms provide access to the rocket before a launch. It protects Ariane 6 until its doors are opened and is retracted before a launch or test. The mobile gantry stands on 16 bogies with eight wheels each and every wheel is equipped with an electric motor.

A total of 128 electric motors synchronise to set the wheels in motion along rails. There are three speeds. The first and last metre are done at the slowest speed of a metre per minute. This increases to a ‘cruising’ speed of 7.6 m per minute for a 130 m stretch and then slowed back down to 3 m per minute in the decelerating phase over a distance of 9 m. The full rollout of 141 m takes 22 minutes.

This timelapse was made before engine ignition and shows the test model surrounded by four tall lightning towers that would take the hit in stormy weather, two large concrete flame trenches that divert exhaust gases away from the launch table and the water tower that would supply huge amounts of water at high speed during a real launch, to suppress sound and vibrations caused by the boosters.

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