Ariane 5 LIVE LAUNCH THREAD - Liftoff 5:52 p.m. EDT/2:52 p.m. PDT (Einstein mission)

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[Jack Hydrazine]

Rocket: Ariane 5 ES

Payload: ATV 4

Date: June 5, 2013

Time: 2152:11 GMT (5:52:11 p.m. EDT/2:52 p.m. EDT)

Site: ELA-3, Guiana Space Center, Kourou French Guiana

Docking: June 15 @ 1348 GMT

Undocking: Oct. 28

[Jack Hydrazine]

[Jack Hydrazine]

Story behind the launch.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/ariane/va213/130604preview/#.Ua-GepyTUZM

[Telepathic Intruder]

Although a tremendous international effort (mostly on the part of the U.S.), the ISS is increasingly a waste of effort. Locked in a useless orbit that allows it to be nothing more than a microgravity laboratory, It can’t really be described as space exploration.

By the way, how did the ESA get solid rocket boosters? The Russians were attempting to steal that technology from the U.S. last time I heard.

[Jack Hydrazine]

They made them.

[Telepathic Intruder]

Ah well, military secrets are the most fleeting of them. My information is outdated as usual.

[Jack Hydrazine]

Building solid rocket motors with some ammonium perchlorate, rust, PBAN, and aluminum powder isn’t very difficult to do.

[Telepathic Intruder]

Of course, solid rocket fuel was the first type invented. But I'm referring to "reusable" solid rocket boosters. There are several technologies which the Russians were not able to copy from us when building their own version of the space shuttle, the one named Buran. Specifically reusable solid rocket boosters and reusable liquid fuel main engines. Which is why the Buran looked different from the space shuttle. Everything else they copied. It had no main engines, only an OMS (was it hydrazine-fueled like ours, I don't know). The main fuel tank, main engines, and SRB's were replaced by a proton booster. Only the orbiter was recoverable.

[Jack Hydrazine]

I fly rockets with reusable solid motors. It’s not a military secret. They’ve been used at the hobby level for about 20 years now.

[Telepathic Intruder]

Hydrazine, you don’t repace the fuel in the solid rocket motors, you replace the solid rocket motors themselves. Model rockets are merely shells with fins. Solid rocket engines used by NASA are very different. They must be disassembled with each launch and the solid fuel literally spray painted inside the combustion chamber, which takes up the entire length of the rocket. NASA had a lot of trouble building ones capable of lifting the Aries V cargo version because the complications increase dramatically with size.

[Telepathic Intruder]

Hydrazine, I liked your thread, and I like being informed about space events. Maybe I’ll try being less of an a-hole in the future.

[markman46]

i don’t know, but ATK has been making solid boosters for a long time now.