2023-07-05 22:36:00
Nominal… Unlike its first flight in 1996, Ariane 5’s last flight was nominal throughout its final journey. As a result, this legendary launcher bowed out on the night of Wednesday to Thursday with a total success on the occasion of his 117th flight (VA261). ” Ariane 5 has just made world space history. This latest success demonstrates once again his extreme reliability in the service of European sovereignty and closes an exceptional career marked by a succession of technological and industrial exploits.”noted the executive chairman of ArianeGroup, Martin Sion, quoted in the Arianespace press release published overnight from Wednesday to Thursday.
Ariadne’s thread 5 definitely broken
Despite its difficult start (two failures and two partial failures out of the first fourteen launches), Ariane 5 has been a formidable launcher for Europe. Reliable (98.4% on the 116 flights before the July 6 flight) and efficient with 239 satellites put into orbit in 27 years of existence, all versions combined, but on the other hand not competitive enough in terms of costs. This launcher is also the cruel reflection of a certain lack of ambition in space Europe and in political Europe as a whole, with the halting of the Hermès shuttle program (21 tonnes) in 1992 at a time when yet still spoke of manned flight for Europe. Too advanced in its development, Ariane 5, which was to put Hermès into orbit, was finally successfully converted operationally into a commercial launcher. But it clearly suffered from its lack of competitiveness, which was accentuated by geographical return, a principle harmful to the competitiveness of European launchers.
But this exceptional launcher undoubtedly deserves to bear his name, Ariane. It served as a guide for space Europe for nearly 30 years and enabled it to get out of a difficult situation in the 1990s, then in the 2000s by dominating the market for telecom satellite launches until the end of the 2010s. It’s up to Ariane 6 to take over when this launcher is finally ready.
Syracuse 4B and Heinrich-Hertz mis sur orbit
For its last mission, Ariane 5 took on board the Heinrich-Hertz and Syracuse 4B satellites respectively for the benefit of the German Space Agency (DLR) for the German government and the General Directorate of Armaments (DGA) for the Ministry of Armies. The European heavy launcher placed the two payloads in geostationary orbit. These two satellites will meet the growing needs of military and institutional authorities in terms of telecommunications.
« This mission is emblematic of Ariane 5’s ability to carry out double launches, which have been at the heart of its success with 197 satellites placed in geostationary orbit out of a total of 239 deployed. By the time it retires, Ariane 5 will have served 65 institutional and commercial customers from 30 different countries. Its successes prefigure the promising career of Ariane 6 “, recalled the executive president of Arianespace, Stéphane Israel, quoted in the press release.
The Syracuse 4B military telecom satellite, which must be fully protected against the highest military threats (nuclear, jamming and cyber), will complete the Syracuse defense program after the launch of Syracuse 4A on board the VA255 mission in October 2021 Airbus Defense and Space and Thales Alenia Space have joined forces to bring their expertise to this latest generation military telecommunications program. For its part, the Heinrich-Hertz satellite developed and designed by OHB Systems is the first German mission dedicated to research and experimentation with new technologies and telecommunications configurations in orbit. Embedded technologies will make it possible to meet future challenges in satellite telecommunications.
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