Europe's new heavy-lift rocket has failed on its maiden flight.
Posted on 12/11/2002 5:11:48 PM PST by MadIvan
Europe's new heavy-lift rocket has failed on its maiden flight.
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.
| We have already known failures, we will know more Jean-Yves Le Gall, Arianespace |
It is not clear whether the vehicle suffered a catastrophic failure or controllers noticed something was wrong and took the painful decision to destroy the rocket.
Main stage
Wednesday's launch was the second attempt to get the Ariane 5-ESCA airborne. The first countdown on 28 November was halted because of a computer glitch.
The launcher was a beefed-up version of the vehicle that first went into full commercial service in 1999.
Wednesday's explosion was the fourth failure of an Ariane 5 rocket in its 14-mission history. The failure is likely to halt Ariane 5 flights indefinitely.
Early investigations are likely to centre on the new components of the rocket.
UK space scientist Dr Andrew Coates, who lost experiments on the first Ariane 5 failure in 1986, said: "This seemed to happen just after the solid fuel boosters would have been jettisoned but still while the main stage was burning so the most likely explanation is that something went wrong with the main stage."
Comet question
The setback will now put an enormous question mark over Europe's upcoming science mission Rosetta, designed to put a lander on Comet Wirtanen.
The Rosetta craft was due to launch on the next Ariane 5 flight on 12 January. Its eight-year journey to the comet requires the probe to be swung around Mars once and Earth twice to get it in the right position to catch the comet.
"It has quite a narrow launch window and if it doesn't go in January I don't know when it will go quite frankly," UK space technologist Dr Chris Welch said.
He speculated the mission might have to risk a flight rather than see years of research and millions of euros go to waste.
Cruel reminder
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.
The debris would have fallen into the Atlantic Ocean. The satellites were likely to have been insured.
The boss of Arianespace, Jean-Yves Le Gall, immediately apologised to his two customers.
"At this stage it is too early to give precise reasons for this failure," he said.
"Our job is difficult. It's at moments like this we are cruelly reminded of it," he added. "We have already known failures, we will know more."
Not as heavily as the French. And secondly, given the difficulties France is giving America and Britain in killing Saddam Hussein, you will understand if we have a chuckle at your expense.
Automobiles are amongst the least consumming, and secure. Where is UK now ? Explain ?
What the bloody hell are you talking about? If Britain is so bad at making cars, why did Peugeot move much of its production to the UK?
Ivan
I think the last time I heard Suriname mentioned was when Anthony Nesty won that surprise Olympic swimming gold medal.
I remember them having a hell of a time playing the Suriname national anthem as no one had prepared for it. ;)
Regards, Ivan
I do bash them. Every opportunity I get. I suggested that we send Milwall FC fans to deal with them.
Ivan
It is a specially designed lander. It has a compartment that will pop open and deploy this little guy so he can surrender to the comet in the name of France:
Mmmmmm . . . . the style is close, but I don't think he's oxi.
Just to make sure, let me dangle some bait. "Greeks, get out of Cyprus NOW!"
;-)
I'm almost afraid to ask, but asking as an assistant safety officer, do you have any stories you'd care to share?
As for your government - I honestly think Chirac doesn't care about terrorism - your people have already been attacked in Pakistan, and your ship was hit off the coast of Yemen. Osama has French targets in his sights. Maybe you realise it, but the wider French public doesn't understand that the likes of Osama and Saddam want us all dead or converted to Islam. The bullseye is painted on you too - we can either try and negotiate the terms of our surrender or fight it.
Ivan
One of the best spots for polar orbit launches is Churchill, Maintoba. Not far from the 60th parallel.
If they pull it off that would actually be excellent science. The composition of comets can tell us a great deal about the areas of space through which they travel.
But relying on French technology to get a spacecraft through three acceleration loops and a safe landing on a moving body with a surface about which we know NOTHING sounds a bit nuts.
In heaven,
The British are the police,
The French are the chefs,
The Swiss are the administrators,
The Italians are the lovers,
And the Germans are the automobile mechanics.
Whereas, in hell,
The British are the cooks,
The French are the administrators,
The Swiss are the lovers,
The Italians are the automobile mechanics,
And the Germans are the police.
But the most finicky and difficult car I ever owned was a Triumph TR-6. We carried a complete tool set and an extensive collection of spare parts in the trunk in order to make sure that we arrived at our destination. (Any baggage rode on the luggage shelf, there was no room for anything else in the trunk). I got to where I could haul out my impact wrench and spares and change the diaphragm on one of the Stromberg CD4 carburetors in less than 5 minutes.
The electrical system also caught fire and burned TWICE. After the second fire, we sat down with the schematic and discovered that our car was a transitional model, having both the floor and the stalk headlight dimmer switches. Unfortunately, if one happened to pull the stalk switch (easy to do because it was on the turn signal stalk) while the floor switch was already on, it created a dead short to ground bypassing the fuse box. A pair of wirecutters solved that problem in a hurry.
But WHEN that car was running, it was a joy to drive. BIG motor, geared low, wide tires with the tops about level with your head, tight steering and good suspension (as long as you kept the multitude of U-joints in good condition). The big American cars could beat it in straight line acceleration, but as long as there were some tight curves in the road I blew the doors off everything in the neighborhood.
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