| astronautix.com | Ariane 5 |
Completely new design, with a single-engine Lox/LH2 core stage flanked by two solid rocket boosters. Preparatory work began in 1984. Full scale development began in 1988 and cost $ 8 billion. The design was sized for the Hermes manned spaceplane, later cancelled. This resulted in the booster being a bit too large for the main commercial payload, geosynchronous communications satellites. The result was that development of an uprated version capable of launching two such satellites at a time was funded in 2000.
Launches: 7. Failures: 1. Success Rate: 85.71% pct. First Launch Date: 04 June 1996. Last Launch Date: 14 September 2000. LEO Payload: 16,000 kg. to: 407 km Orbit. at: 51.6 degrees. Payload: 6,800 kg. to a: Geosynchronous transfer, 7 deg inclination trajectory. Liftoff Thrust: 1,160,000 kgf. Total Mass: 737,000 kg. Core Diameter: 5.4 m. Total Length: 54.0 m. Launch Price $: 180.00 million. in 2000 price dollars.
The Ariane 5 was a completely new design, with a single-engine Lox/LH2 core stage flanked by two solid rocket boosters. Full scale development cost $ 8 billion.
The Cluster satellites were a series of sophisticated earth-observation platforms that were to be launched aboard the first Ariane 5. The explosion of the booster led to a costly setback for European space science. There were no back-up spacecraft. Some instruments may fly on other future satellites.
Dummy communications satellite instrumented to report the actual payload bay environment during launch. It included the TEAMSAT technology experiment payload, developed by ESTEC
Dummy satellite in the lower bay of the SPELTRA dual launch adapter.
Young Engineers Satellite with several technology experiments. Ejected from MAQSAT-H/TEAMSAT.
The ARD was an 80 percent scale model of the Apollo Command Module, and a technology test for a possible International Space Station Crew Rescue Vehicle. Equipment included a TDRS satellite communications system; a GPS navigation system; 7 DASA 40 kgf hydrazine attitude control thrusters; a 2.8 m diameter heat shield; three 23 metre diameter parachutes, and a SARSAT recovery beacon. The ARD separated from the Ariane EPS upper stage at 12 minutes 2 seconds after launch. ARD and the EPC stage manoeuvred into a 1 km x 830 km orbit, guaranteeing re-entry at the end of the first orbit. The spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific at 3.69 degrees N, 153.35 degrees W, and was successfully recovered by the French Navy.
Maqsat 3 was an instrumentation package used to monitor performance of the Ariane 5 booster. At T+12:43 the Speltra adapter cover separated revealing Maqsat-3. At T+15:14 the EPS stage Aestus engine ignited and burned until T+31:00. At this point on a normal mission the satellite would separate from the EPS, but to avoid creating space debris Maqsat remained attached to the EPS. The EPS/Maqsat-3 was placed in a 1027 km x 35863 km x 7.0 degree geostationary transfer orbit.
ESA's X-ray Multi-Mirror space observatory was the biggest science satellite ever built in Europe. Complementary in characteristics to NASA's Chandra satellite, the spacecraft were expected to make major new astronomical discoveries.
Replaced the lost Insat 2D and carried a pure telecommunications payload of C, Ku and S band transponders. Stationed at 83 deg E.
Worldspace's second digital radio satellite. Joinef Afristar in orbit with a mission of providing radio broadcasting to the developing world. Stationed at 105 deg E.
GE Americom satellite to provide cable TV distribution coverage to the USA. Equipped with 24 C-band transponders. Its dry mass was 912 kg and it carried 1023 kg of fuel at launch. The satellite is an A2100A model built by Lockheed Martin/Sunnyvale, the first lightweight A2100 with a mass about half that of earlier A2100 satellites. By September 19 GE 7 was in a 35,832 x 35,869 km x 0.1 deg orbit drifting over 146 deg W. Stationed at 137 deg W.
Astra 2B was an Astrium/Toulouse Eurostar 2000+ television broadcast satellite owned by the Luxembourg-based Societe Europeene de Satellites. The satellite was to be stationed at 28.2E to replace the German DFS Kopernikus. It carried 28 Ku-band transponders. By September 19 Astra 2B was in a 31,153 x 35,762 km x 0.3 deg orbit, approaching geosynchronous altitude. Stationed at 28 deg E.