Hi Everyone,

May I be the first to wish you all A Happy Easter :P

[NOTE: To down-load the Post News Sheet you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader. By itself this post is NEW and experimental so that Forum Moderaters may wish to acknowledge in my favour or present constructive critism(Watch this space!). However, with much thought it provides for a more detailed set of images to be made available without having to link to any outside web-page. Hopefully this singular experiment may lead to other UT topics being presented in this way too.RP]

THE LAUNCH OF ARIAN 5-ETC

Please do comment on this contribution in the Forum, your observations and feedback is invaluable to all Forum members. I acknowledge © ESA/Arianespace for the use of all the Media images included here.

[Down-load the Arian 5 ECA News Sheet] B)

On Saturday 12 February the new ESA heavy, launch rocket Arian 5 ECA sat on its launch pad in French Guiana, a suburb of South America, waiting take off on its second test mission of its two-year lifespan. The last launch in late 2002 ended in failure 4 minutes after take off when it had to be destroyed by the Range Safety officer. Members of the science team where therefore noticeably nervous as the moments ticked by on Saturday evening.


The rocket stood proud on the launch pad in fine weather conditions just like a soldier standing to attention ready to do his duty for his country.

Flight 164 carried three payloads on its journey into space: An XTAR-EUR telecommunications satellite: to be placed into GTO Sloshsat-FLEVO, an experimental mini-satellite to investigate the dynamics of fluids in weightlessness, jointly developed by ESA and NIVR, the Dutch Agency for Aerospace Programmes: to be placed into GTO Maqsat B2 telemetry/video imaging package: to remain mated to the upper stage of the launcher for recording flight data

The Saturday launch window lasted approximately 80 minutes, and the tension rose as the time ticked by.
The final countdown had arrived: 10 .9 .8 .7 .6 … all system go for launch.

The European Space Agency announced that if successful Ariane 5 ECA will be able to place heavy payloads of up to 10 tonnes into geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) in comparison to the 6-tonne payloads placed into GTO by the Ariane 5 Generic launchers. The increased performance of the Ariane 5 ECA is due to two main differences: a more powerful Vulcain-2 first stage engine developed from the Ariane 5 generic Vulcan 1 engine a cryogenic upper stage (ESCA) using the tried and tested Ariane 4 HM7B engine that made over 130 successful launches Since the failure of the first Ariane 5 ECA Flight in December 2002, the Vulcain-2 nozzle extension has been redesigned and tested, and an exhaustive review of the whole launcher has been conducted; it was “Now or never!”

Four three .2 .1. The new high-powered Vulcan 2 engine roared into life and smokes billowed to either side of the launch pad until ever so slowly Arian 5 ESA lifted on a brilliant candle flame clear of the launch towers, and was soon climbing high into the equatorial sky.

After several minutes of flight, Arian 5 ECA was in orbit around the Earth and soon after its cargo of satellites were deployed successfully to the sound of cheers and congratulations, as mission scientists shook hands congratulating each other.

The failure of a similar rocket 26 months previously had now been turned around into a complete success story.

There are presently established ESA plans to send a manned mission to Mars beginning in 2033, so that the complete success of this rocket was also a singular mile-stone towards constructing the first Manned European Mars spacecraft in Earth orbit prior to that historic mission to the red planet yet to come.

By Science Correspondent
Richard Pearson
17 February 2005.

__________________
Richard Pearson
Science Correspondent
<span style='color:purple'>Yahoo Instant Messege ID:</span> <span style='color:blue'>richard_pearson2</span>

The successful qualification of the rocket-engine test facility P4.1 in Lampoldshausen, Germany was marked by the visit on 2 November of high-level management from ESA, the French space agency CNES, rocket-engine manufacturer Snecma/SAFRAN Group and hosted by the German Aerospace Center DLR.
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Launcher...5L638FE_0.html
The facility is now ready to test the second upper-stage Vinci engine M-2, intended for future launcher developments in Europe.

The Members of the Regional Government of the Azores have formally inaugurated the site of a new ESA tracking station on Santa Maria Island which will support the flight of Europe's first Automated Transfer Vehicle to the International Space Station.
Each year the Regional Government visits each island of Portugal's far-flung Atlantic archipelago. These annual visits are part of the Statute of this Autonomous Region. This year's visit to Santa Maria Island, the southernmost part of the Azores, coincided with the inauguration of the infrastructure set up to host an ESA mobile tracking station on the Island's Monte das Flores (Hill of Flowers).
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/
The facility comprises a platform to host the mobile tracking station, along with an electricity supply, lightning protection and support infrastructure. Monte das Flores will be part of the network of stations used to track launches from Europe's Guiana Space Centre (Centre Spatial Guyanais or CSG) to the International Space Station (ISS), starting with Jules Verne, the first launch of ESA's Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) re-supply vehicle.

http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMHL90DU8E_Life_1.html

The next launch of an Ariane 5 ECA is scheduled to take place between 08:44 to 09:29 on 10 November from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana (between 00:44 to 01:29 on 11 November CET)
launch clips are here:
http://www.videocorner.tv/index.php?langue=en
Next Mission
http://www.arianespace.com/site/laun...sub_index.html
Launch Date: November 10, 2005 , Launcher version: Ariane 5 ECA
Payload(s): Spaceway 2 & Telkom 2

It says november 12 now

__________________
To the regular visitor of internet bulletin boards it is clear that it's an excellent idea your parents get to choose your real name.

Arianespace just confirmed tonight's scheduled mission to deploy two commercial communications satellites -- slated for launch a half-hour from now -- was thwarted by technical problems earlier today.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/ariane/v167/status.html
The lift-off of an Ariane-5 ECA launcher with two telecommunications satellites, which was delayed overnight Saturday due to a technical problem, will "probably" take place in two or three days, the European group Arianespace said Sunday.
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/ariane-05j.html