The Ariane 5 rocket lifted off for the last time on 6 July from the European Space Agency's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, leaving behind it a stellar track record.
On its final flight earlier this month, the rocket launched the French communications satellite Syracuse 4b and the German aerospace agency’s Heinrich Hertz experimental communications satellite.
According to Toni Tolker-Nielsen, acting director of space transportation at the European Space Agency, reliability will be one of Ariane 5’s lasting legacies.
“Out of 117 Ariane 5 launches, 112 have been successful,” Tolker-Nielsen told RFI.
High-profile launches
He also listed some of Ariane 5’s noteworthy missions.
“We launched the Automated Transfer Vehicle [cargo spacecraft] five times to the International Space Station; half of the Galileo constellation [of navigation satellites]; a multitude of scientific and Earth observation missions like Envisat, BepiColombo, Herschel/Planck, Juice, and lately the James Webb Space Telescope.”
He added that on top of launching institutional missions, Ariane 5 dominated the commercial market, with a market share of 50 percent.
Ariane 5 will now be replaced by Ariane 6, Tolker-Nielsen says, “which is a very agile launcher and perfectly adapted to the market”.
