Ariane-5 ECA rocket soars into space
by Jean-Marie Godard

The Associated Press    Translate This Article
13 February 2005

PARIS - Europe's most powerful rocket, carrying a payload of precious satellites, soared into space Saturday from its South American base in a successful launch more than two years after its inaugural flight ended in disaster.

Just a half-hour after liftoff from its base in Kourou, French Guiana, the Ariane-5 ECA—the world's most powerful commercial launcher—had placed its two satellites into orbit.

The control room broke into applause and tense technicians shared smiles and handshakes after data showed the payload, a U.S.-Spanish satellite and a European Space Agency micro-satellite, had been successfully lobbed into orbit 31 minutes after the liftoff.

''This is the success we all waited for, and I thank all those who contributed,'' said Jean-Yves Le Gall, president of Arianespace, the European rocket's commercial arm.

''This launch erases the failure of December 2002,'' he said.

A rocket launched Dec. 11, 2002, went out of control and was destroyed three minutes after it blasted off. Two telecommunications satellites were lost in the doomed inaugural flight.

Since then, experts have refined the rocket Arianespace is counting on to maintain its edge in the lucrative satellite launcher market. Its competitors include such U.S. launchers such as Boeing's Delta IV.

The 780-ton Ariane-5 ECA can lob a 10-ton payload into space, meaning it can carry larger satellites two at a time, assuring competitiveness in the multibillion dollar satellite launching market.

French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin hailed the successful launch as ''the mark of a winning Europe.''

The unmanned rocket had been set to take off on Friday, but was delayed for 24 hours because of an anomaly discovered in the ground equipment, Arianespace said.

Copyright©2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.



Translation software is not perfect; however if you would like to try it, you can translate this page using:

(Google) Select a language English to Afrikaans English to Albanian English to Arabic English to Belarusian English to Bulgarian English to Catalan English to Chinese (Simplified) English to Chinese (Traditional) English to Croatian English to Czech English to Danish English to Dutch English to Estonian English to Filipino English to Finnish English to French English to Galician English to German English to Greek English to Hebrew English to Hindi English to Hungarian English to Icelandic English to Indonesian English to Irish English to Italian English to Japanese English to Korean English to Latvian English to Lithuanian English to Macedonian English to Malay English to Maltese English to Norwegian English to Persian English to Polish English to Portuguese English to Romanian English to Russian English to Serbian English to Slovak English to Slovenian English to Spanish English to Swahili English to Swedish English to Thai English to Turkish English to Ukrainian English to Vietnamese English to Welsh English to Yiddish

(Altavista babelfish) Select a languageEnglish to Chinese-simpEnglish to Chinese-tradEnglish to DutchEnglish to PortugueseEnglish to FrenchEnglish to GermanEnglish to GreekEnglish to ItalianEnglish to JapaneseEnglish to KoreanEnglish to RussianEnglish to Spanish

Send Good News to Global Good News.

Your comments.