Ariane5

Ariane 5 is a European heavy-lift orbital launch vehicle developed for both commercial and scientific payloads. It was designed to provide Europe with independent access to space and to carry large satellites to geostationary transfer orbit as well as missions to other destinations. The launcher is operated by Arianespace from the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana. The primary industrial partners are European aerospace firms, with the core stage built by what is now Airbus Defence and Space.

The Ariane 5 family has undergone several evolutions to improve reliability and performance. The early G version commonly used two solid rocket boosters in conjunction with a cryogenic core stage. Later variants include the Ariane 5 ES, which was configured to deploy ESA’s Automated Transfer Vehicles to the International Space Station, and the Ariane 5 ECA, an enhanced version with upgraded upper-stage performance and propellant optimization. Each variant supports different mission profiles, including commercial satellite launches and scientific or interplanetary missions.

Notable missions associated with Ariane 5 include the Rosetta mission to comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, launched in 2004, and multiple European ATV resupply flights to the International Space Station (ATV Jules Verne in 2008, ATV Johannes Kepler in 2011, ATV Edoardo Amaldi in 2012, and ATV Georges Lemaître in 2014). The vehicle has also launched a large number of commercial telecommunications satellites, often in dual-payload configurations, making it a workhorse of European spaceflight for two decades.

As part of long-term program planning, Ariane 5 is intended to be superseded by the smaller and more cost-efficient Ariane 6, which is being developed to maintain Europe’s independent access to space and to address evolving market needs.