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First Launch of new heavy-lift Ariane 5 rocket

Posted by Hemos on from the heavy-lifter dept.

obiwan2u writes "In the article Europe's super-rocket rides high, BBC talks about the Feb 12th launch of Arianespace's new bigger/better Ariane 5-ECA. The new rocket can lift multiple satellites totalling 10 metric tons (10K kilograms or about 11 olde english tons) into geosync orbit. The price will hopefully around $15K-$20K per kg. The first launch included a communications satellite and a science experiment called (I'm not making this up) SloshSat , designed to investigate the dynamics of fluids in microgravity. "

2 of 32 comments (clear)

  1. What is it actually for? by JaxWeb · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This is more of a technological progression and commerial tool than a scienfic exploration unlike a lot of other projects, which I think is a shame, but in any case, this diagram looks very impressive.

    Just to explain where that funny sounding "Sloshsat" comes from:
    The name Sloshsat Flevo is derived from: 'Slosh' for the movement of liquid, 'sat' for satellite and FLEVO, the acronym for Facility for Liquid Experimentation and Verification in Orbit, and also one of the newest regions in the Netherlands, Flevoland, east of Amsterdam.

    --
    - Jax
  2. Am I just out of the loop... by Spytap · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ...for thinking that $20,000 per Kilogram is insanely expensive for a craft built to haul 10,000 Kilograms?