OREANDA-NEWS  The upper stage of the promising European Ariane 6 space rocket has passed successful firing tests. This is reported by the publication European Spaceflight with reference to the Ariane Group company.

The tests took place on April 12, but Ariane Group told about them later. During the latter, before the launch of the rocket, the upper stage test demonstrated its operation in abnormal conditions. Three activation of the auxiliary propulsion system of the stage was carried out, in total, the tests lasted 66 minutes. The main propulsion system of the stage — Vinci — was not switched on.

The publication assures that the tests could have been conducted in secrecy, since nothing was reported about them in the latest regular official press releases of the European Space Agency (ESA).