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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. "

9 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
    1. Re:What is it actually for? by bhima · · Score: 4, Funny
      It's for putting really big things in space.

      Or several smaller things in space, at the same time.

      --
      Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
  2. Tons by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    10 metric tons (10K kilograms or about 11 olde english tons)

    Hang on a moment, if you're being literal, than an "olde english" ton is not the same as a US ton (2000 pounds). The imperial ton is is 2240 pounds, which would make the sentence:

    10 metric tons (10K kilograms or about 9.8 olde english tons)

    Thank you, and have a good day.

    1. Re:Tons by PhilHibbs · · Score: 3, Informative

      The old English tonne was 2160lb, though.

  3. This is a dupe! by marat · · Score: 3, Informative

    02/12 version of this story got mysterious lost, but thanks to redundancy on slashdot it finally reached us now just two days later.

  4. Oblig. Simpsons by SB5 · · Score: 4, Funny

    The metric system is the tool of the devil! My car gets 40 rods to the hogshead, and that's the way I likes it!

    So how many rods to the hogshead does it get?

    --
    If what you are reading sounds funny, or sarcastic, lame, or stupid
    it is because it is supposed to be. just laugh
  5. 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?

    1. Re:Am I just out of the loop... by DemoLiter3 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      hauling things to the geostationary orbit is quite expensive in general, it's almost 1/10 of distance to the Moon.

  6. Not the first launch by magsilva · · Score: 3, Informative

    This isn't the _first_ launch of the Ariane 5 ECA. The first was on december 2002. Unfortunately, the vehicle was self-destroyed after three minutes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariane_5) due to a software bug.