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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."

13 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. Re:Great idea by Lars+T. · · Score: 2, Informative

      Unreliable? Hardly. Unless you include the failed first launch of the Ariane 5 EC-A enhanced version, there was 1 failure in 13 launches, the failure being due to the infamous soft-/hardware integration error, which has been fixed.

      --

      Lars T.

      To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck

    3. Re:Great idea by sean23007 · · Score: 1

      1 failure in 13 is not very reliable. Over 100 successful launches is reliable.

      --

      Lack of eloquence does not denote lack of intelligence, though they often coincide.
    4. Re:Great idea by Lars+T. · · Score: 1

      So make it 0 out of twelve after a bug has been fixed. Is that reliable enough?

      --

      Lars T.

      To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck

    5. Re:Great idea by Detritus · · Score: 1

      The Ariane did not start out with a wonderful reliability record. I remember once joking that Ariane customers could save millions of dollars by hiring a barge and dumping their satellites into the ocean by themselves. It took a while to get the bugs out of the system. This is normal for any new launch vehicle.

      --
      Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
    6. Re:Great idea by sean23007 · · Score: 1

      I didn't count the failure of the new heavy lift rocket. That was the second failure in 14 launches of the Ariane 5 rocket. No matter which way you look at it, that is much worse than 116 safe launches.

      --

      Lack of eloquence does not denote lack of intelligence, though they often coincide.
  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?

    1. Re:Onwards and upwards by Jon+Chatow · · Score: 1

      You know, there's a limit to the extent that rockets capable of taking reasonably large masses into orbit can differ without being sub-optimal ;-). But I do see what you mean...

      --
      James F.
    2. Re:Onwards and upwards by Jon+Chatow · · Score: 1

      For reference: the Titan III that took Mars 1 into space vs. the BBC's picture of the Arianne 4. I think the Arianne 4 has 4 SRBs, not 2, though.

      --
      James F.
    3. Re:Onwards and upwards by pstemari · · Score: 1
      No, I meant the Ariane 5 looked like a Titan III knockoff.

      Depending on the exact configuration, the Ariane 4 can have up to four solid-fuel strap-ons. The AR40 has none, the AR42P has two solid-fuel strap-ons, and the AR44P has four. It can also use liquid fuel strap-ons, alone or in conjunction with solid fuel strap-ons, giving the AR42L (two liquid), AR44LP (two of each), and AR44L (four liquid). It's really an amazing amount of flexibility.

  3. Re:Name dropping! by jericho4.0 · · Score: 1

    Wow!

    --
    "A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming, is not worth knowing" - Alan Perlis
  4. Re:Name dropping! by Jellybob · · Score: 1

    I resent that sarcastic comment, and will be sending my lawyers round to VA in the morning, to demand that the comment is immediatly removed from /. and all it's mirrors.

    I will not tolerate this slander!