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New Ariane 5 Variant Fails In First Launch
By PETER B. de SELDING
Space News Staff Writer
posted: 06:09 pm ET
11 December 2002
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UntitledPARIS - A new variant of Europe's Ariane 5 rocket failed roughly three minutes into its inaugural launch Dec. 11 after appearing to divert from its intended trajectory. Jean-Yves Le Gall, chief executive officer of the French-led Arianespace consortium, which operates Ariane rockets, provided no details on the cause of the failure beyond saying that range controllers lost contact with the vehicle about three minutes after its early evening liftoff from the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. By that time, the rocket's two solid-fuel strap-on boosters had separated and the vehicle was under the power of its main cryogenic stage. The mission was the first of an Ariane 5 equipped with a cryogenic upper stage, which apparently never got the chance to function. The new upper stage was designed to boost the Ariane 5's payload capacity, enabling it to launch two satellites with a combined weight of nearly 10,000 kilograms into geostationary transfer orbit. The maiden flight was carrying the Hot Bird 7 direct-broadcast television satellite owned by Eutelsat S.A. of Paris and the French government's Stentor telecommunications research satellite, which was designed to test new technologies. The failure throws into doubt the scheduled Jan. 12 launch of the European Space Agency's Rosetta comet-chaser spacecraft aboard an Ariane 5 rocket. Rosetta has a 10-day launch window. If that window missed, the next opportunity to launch the mission is in 170 years.
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