- Ariane 5 rocket, symbol of European space industry, to make its final flight after 27-year career.
- Last launch scheduled for Tuesday, carrying French military communications satellite and German experimental satellite.
- Ariane 5 overcame early setbacks to achieve remarkable reliability and success in space missions.
- Discontinuation of Soyuz rockets and delays in Ariane 6 pose challenges for Europe’s independent access to space.
- European space industry faces fierce competition from U.S.-based SpaceX, raising concerns about future satellite deployments.
European Ariane 5 rocket bids farewell with a final flight
The Ariane 5 rocket will undertake its last flight on Tuesday after a 27-year career that has made it a symbol of the European space industry, now facing a shortage of launchers in a context of fierce competition.
On its 117th and final flight, scheduled Tuesday between 21H30 and 23H05 GMT from Kourou in French Guiana, Ariane 5 will carry a French military communications satellite and a German experimental satellite.
The liftoff will be “emotionally charged” for the teams at the Guiana Space Center, whose last decades of work have revolved around this rocket, its director, Marie-Anne Clair, told AFP.
Ariane 5 has been an “incredible human adventure,” said the CEO of the Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES), Philippe Baptiste.
The satellite launcher got off to a rocky start as it exploded on its maiden flight in 1996.
However, it then had a single failure, in 2002.
It was a “traumatic experience” that “left a deep mark on us,” recalls Hervé Gilibert, the launcher’s architect at the time.
“It took us two years to get back in the air,” says the current technical director of ArianeGroup.
Since then, Ariane 5 has gone from success to success. The start-up setbacks had “the virtuous effect of keeping us on our toes,” says the engineer.
– Rosetta, James Webb, Juice –
The rocket achieved a strong reputation for reliability, which led to NASA entrusting it with its iconic $10 billion James Webb telescope.
The launch, on Christmas Day 2021, marked an apotheosis for the rocket that sent the Rosetta probes to comet Churi (2004) and Juice to Jupiter (April 2023).
In commercial terms, it was “the spearhead of space Europe,” says Daniel Neuenschwander, director of space transport at the European Space Agency (ESA).
Twelve countries were involved in the manufacture of the heavy launcher that took over from Ariane 4, with twice the launch capacity, enabling Europe to gain a foothold in the satellite market.
Europe was able to take advantage of a “period of inactivity” in the United States, according to Neuenschwander.
“Today we are experiencing exactly the reverse situation” and Europe is deprived of independent access to space, he points out.
The abrupt discontinuation of the use of Soyuz rockets after the Russian invasion of Ukraine is the main cause.
In 2022 there were only six launches against 15 in 2021.
The failure in December 2022 of the first commercial flight of the Vega-C light launcher and the delay in the future Ariane 6 aggravated the situation.
– Difficult times –
After the last Ariane 5 launch and until the first Ariane 6 launch, in late 2023 at best, there will be only one Vega launch in September.
More powerful and competitive, with costs halved compared to Ariane 5, Ariane 6 was designed to withstand stiff competition in the launcher market, dominated by U.S.-based SpaceX, which launches more than one rocket per week.
ESA had to turn to Elon Musk’s company for its Euclid science mission and its EarthCare atmospheric observation satellite.
What worries the Europeans most is not being sure that they can guarantee the strategic deployment of the next Galileo satellites, the European Union’s navigation system.
Ariane 6 qualification tests are in full swing. A dress rehearsal held in Kourou on June 22 featured the launcher on its launch pad before a test ignition of the Vulcain 2.1 engine.