(FRENCH) Super rocket explodes on launch (OOPS ALERT)

BBC News ^ | December 12, 2002 | BBC News

[MadIvan]

I leave the comparisons between French rockets and their automobiles to you lot. ;)

Regards, Ivan

[MadIvan]

Bump!

[Poohbah]

Coming from an Englishman...I would watch the automobile slams.

If Britannia rules the waves, why can't her cars cross a puddle?

[LibKill]

Grenouilles Incompétentes!

[deadlywithapen]

Ten minutes after the blast the french army surrendered.
;-}

[Billthedrill]

No explanation for the loss has yet been given by officials from Arianespace...

First thing I'd suspect would be that explosion, but hey, I'm just an amateur...

[KarlInOhio]

I would rather compare French rockets to their aircraft carriers. Did the prop fall of the rocket?

[RightWhale]

This is horrible. It's French and all, and their loss is the gain of their competitors, mainly Atlas, Delta, Russia, Japan, and China, in order of gross domestic space product, but this is bad news anyway.

[shaggy eel]

,,, surely national pride would determine such a grand scale project would be staged on French soil rather than in their colonies. I guess this is quite a wise site to use on the basis of the outcome in this case.

[Itzlzha]

The Ariane 5-ESCA blasted off from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana at 1921 (2221 GMT) local time and blew up three minutes later.

In a tersely worded press release, the French Government announced that the rocket had "surrendered to gravity"...

[MadIvan]

In a tersely worded press release, the French Government announced that the rocket had "surrendered to gravity"...

Yes, the new Vichy class rockets would in future be pointed downward, so as not to resist the force any longer, but rather go with it, in an acceptance of the natural order. ;)

Regards, Ivan

[Moose4]

So were the engines made by Citroen, Peugeot, or Renault.

Must've been Renault. It's the "Le Rocket!"

}:-)4

[Southack]

"The Ariane 5 launcher lost on Wednesday was carrying a double payload: a Hotbird TM7 for the European telecoms consortium Eutelsat, and Stentor, an experimental communications satellite for the French space research institute CNES."

Goodness, the new French spy satellite communications bird didn't make it to orbit, who woulda thunk it...

[Squawk 8888]

Not the first time an Ariane-5 blowed up real good. Back around '94 they lost the first one because the guidance computers were loaded with Ariane-4 software.

[Itzlzha]

LOL, and tip o' the hat, noble FReeper!

[mhking]

"It blow'd up REAL good" ping!

---

"Hold muh beer 'n watch this!" PING....

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[tet68]

I just hate to see anything impede the space efforts.

Hmmmmm. France......4 for 14
Nasa shuttle 1 for ? how many?

[Cobra64]

Yes, I heard about the brandy-new French aircraft carrier dropping its 13 ton prop; it had to be towed back to port. Those morons can't build a car that's marketable in the USA. Well, then again, those arrogant pricks hate our guts after we defended them in two World Wars. Besides, why do they want to put a lander on a flippin "comet?" Those people are hopeles twits.

[GhostSoldier]

Ten minutes after the blast the french army surrendered.

Only because it took ten minutes to change their underwear.

The Maginot Line of technology.

[abcraghead]

Hmm....

And that Russia rocket went down recently, and then that was followed by the Russian rocket mis-launching a Euro satelite... wasn't that a "communications" sat also? They ended up ditching it in the Pacific because it attained the wrong orbit.

The first of those two Russian rocket failures was attributed to "outside forces", read, sabotage. Could this be also? I can hardly imagine the borders of French Giuana [sic, I'm sure] being secure.