I think they fully expected the second stage of Ariane 6 to be able to deorbit itself. Other than spacex, it's pretty unusual for testflights of big orbital roc

I think they fully expected the second stage of Ariane 6 to be able to deorbit itself. Other than spacex, it's pretty unusual for testflights of big orbital rockets to be put on a suborbital trajectory. e.g. the first flight of SLS went around the moon.