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Final Mission for the Ariane-4 Successful

Posted by timothy on from the end-on-a-good-note dept.

Neophytus writes "The BBC reports that the final mission of the Ariane-4 series of commercial rockets has been completed. First launched in 1988 they have since successfully completed 116 missions, the final lifting the Intelsat 907 communications satellite into geostationary orbit. About 5 launches of the Ariane-5 are planned this year, the first in March."

3 of 18 comments (clear)

  1. Great idea by uncoveror · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So, they are retiring the Ariane-4, which has always worked, and going to the Ariane-5, which is unreliable. Maybe they should just follow NASA's lead and build a giant catapult to launch satellites into space.

    --
    The Uncoveror: It's the real news.
    1. Re:Great idea by PD · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Not as bad as the Titan IV. Very expensive, liked to blow up, and they retired it after a ridiculously small number of launches.

      It's replaced with that new Delta that can lift the heavy payloads. And Deltas are much nicer.

      --
      If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
  2. Onwards and upwards by pstemari · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Figures on the website indicate that the Ariane-5 will roughly double the payload to geosynch orbit. A rather nice feat for a program with a good history of success. Reliability should improve with more launches.

    Am I the only one who think it looks like a Titan-III knockoff, though?