The Ariane 5 rocket has had an incredible run, serving for nearly three decades as a reliable launcher of satellites and spacecraft. With its iconic design featuring a liquid hydrogen-fueled core stage and solid rocket boosters, the Ariane 5 has become a symbol of Europe’s unwavering access to space.
But now, the journey is coming to an end for the Ariane 5. In just a matter of hours, the final Ariane 5 rocket will soar into the sky from Kourou, French Guiana, carrying a French military communications satellite and a German communications satellite to geostationary transfer orbit. The launch window opens at 5:30 pm ET (21:30 UTC), and you can watch it live on ESA TV.
And what lies ahead for Europe’s space agency? Well, they are facing some challenging questions.
History
The Ariane 5 rocket made its debut in June 1996, experiencing a launch failure followed by a partial failure in its second launch a year later. However, since then, the rocket has achieved an impressive record of success with 116 total launch attempts. It has been a true workhorse, delivering numerous commercial satellites to geostationary space and ensuring the successful deployment of Europe’s national security payloads.
In addition, the Ariane 5 has played a crucial role in launching important space science missions, including the Rosetta, Herschel, Planck, BepiColombo, and JUICE spacecraft. One of its most notable achievements was the precise orbit insertion of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope in December 2021, which extended the mission’s estimated lifetime.
Looking to the future
That’s the inspiring part of the Ariane 5 rocket’s story. However, there’s a bitter side as Europe sets its sights on the future. Recognizing that the Ariane 5 was not as price-competitive as newer rockets like SpaceX’s Falcon 9 booster, European space leaders decided to develop a next-generation booster, the Ariane 6, to enhance competitiveness.
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This new rocket, the Ariane 6, builds upon the Ariane 5’s legacy with updated designs for the solid rocket booster and the Vulcain main engine. European space officials initially planned for the Ariane 6’s debut flight in 2020.
Unfortunately, as of July 2023, it’s evident that the Ariane 6 rocket will not launch until next year, and possibly not until the summer of 2024. At the recent Paris Air Show, Arianespace and other European entities refrained from providing a new estimated launch date, indicating that there is still much work to be done, including additional tests and assembly.
Real-world consequences
These delays have significant implications for Europe’s launch industry. Originally developed to compete with the Falcon 9, the Ariane 6’s ongoing delays have forced the European Space Agency to rely on SpaceX’s rocket for some of its most valuable missions.
For instance, Europe recently launched its high-value Euclid space telescope on the Falcon 9 because the Ariane 6 would not be available until at least 2025. Furthermore, the delays have led to the decision to launch the Hera asteroid probe on a Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral in 2024, and the EarthCARE satellite will also have to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 due to issues with the European Vega C rocket.
In acknowledging these setbacks, the European Space Agency’s director general, Josef Aschbacher, admitted that Europe has fallen significantly behind SpaceX in terms of launch capabilities.
“SpaceX has undeniably changed the launcher market paradigm as we know it,” he wrote in May. “With the dependable reliability of Falcon 9 and the captivating prospects of Starship, SpaceX continues to redefine the world’s access to space, pushing the boundaries of possibility. Europe, on the other hand, finds itself in an acute launcher crisis.”
So as the final Ariane 5 embarks on its journey, Europe faces uncertain waters until the Ariane 6 can finally take flight.
Europe’s Ariane 5 rockets have been a monument of the European Space Agency (ESA) for two decades. Throughout their illustrious and noteworthy tenure, the fleet of Ariane 5 rockets have been relied upon for commercial and government launches and have established European countries as key players in the field of aerospace engineering.
However, Ed Parsons, a British STEM advocate, recently expressed his opinion that the upcoming launch of the Ariane 5 ES rocket in late August will be bittersweet. Mr. Parsons noted the origins of the Ariane 5 as a symbol of the ascendance of ESA’s space exploration capabilities.
The Ariane 5 was first developed in 1996 as a response to competition from other space exploration initiatives by ESA. The initial launch took place in the same year from Kourou, French Guiana, with the mission of delivering two satellites to geo-transfer orbit. The mission was a success, and the Ariane 5 quickly became a key tool in ESA’s endeavor to develop launch capabilities to bring satellites used for global communications as well as research into space. As the years progressed, the Ariane 5 rocket experienced various further developments and launches, especially for commercial missions.
Mr. Parsons reflected that the Ariane 5 was always highly anticipated and truly unique in its active development process; with regular progress made each year, it has been consistently engineered and improved upon since its inception. To date, the fleet of Ariane 5 rockets have completed 168 launches with a 95.4% success rate, a record that puts it among the most reliable launch vehicles in the world.
As August comes to a close the Ariane 5 ES, the last in its kind, is set to take its final voyage to space. However, this bittersweet moment doesn’t signal the end of ESA’s space exploration endeavors. Instead, the closing of the Ariane 5 era signals the beginning of a new project which will introduce the Ariane 6 rocket to the world. The new plans will provide cost savings by introducing more cost-effective measures and a back-to-basics approach to rocketry. In honor of its decorated predecessor, the Ariane 6 is intended to be an improved model, with increased performance and reliability, of the rocket that served ESA so well for 20 years.
The retirement of Europe’s iconic Ariane 5 rockets marks a sad end to an era of remarkable success and discovery. However, such an event does not signify an end for space exploration, but rather an opportunity for the ESA to improve upon its current iteration of its well-noted series of rockets.
