Ariane 1 is the first version of the Ariane

Ariane (rocket)

Ariane is a series of a European civilian expendable launch vehicles for space launch use. The name comes from the French spelling of the mythological character Ariadne....

 launcher family. Ariane 1 was designed primarily to put two telecommunications satellites at a time into orbit, thus reducing costs. As the size of the satellites grew Ariane 1 gave way to the more powerful Ariane 2

Ariane 2

Ariane 2 was a European expendable carrier rocket, which was used for six launches between 1986 and 1989. It was a member of the Ariane family of rockets, and was produced by Aérospatiale in France....

 and Ariane 3 launchers.

Vehicle description

Ariane 1 was the first launch vehicle to be developed by the European Space Agency

European Space Agency

The European Space Agency , established in 1975, is an intergovernmental organisation dedicated to the exploration of space, currently with 18 member states...

. It was developed from the L3S Europa launch vehicle replacement design. The development of the vehicle was authorized in July 1973. The cost of program is estimated at 2 billion euros. With lift-off mass of 210000 kg (462,970.8 lb), Ariane I was able to put in geostationary orbit

Geostationary orbit

A geostationary orbit is a geosynchronous orbit directly above the Earth's equator , with a period equal to the Earth's rotational period and an orbital eccentricity of approximately zero. An object in a geostationary orbit appears motionless, at a fixed position in the sky, to ground observers...

 one satellite

Satellite

In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavour. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....

 or two smaller of a maximal weight of 1850 kg (4,078.6 lb).

The Ariane 1 was a four stage vehicle. The first stage was equipped with 4 Viking engines developed by the Société Européenne de Propulsion. The second stage had a single Viking engine. The third stage had one LOX

Lox

Lox is salmon fillet that has been cured. In its most popular form, it is thinly sliced—less than in thickness—and, typically, served on a bagel, often with cream cheese, onion, tomato, cucumber and capers...

/LH2 bipropellant engine capable of a thrust

Thrust

Thrust is a reaction force described quantitatively by Newton's second and third laws. When a system expels or accelerates mass in one direction the accelerated mass will cause a force of equal magnitude but opposite direction on that system....

 of 7,000 kgf

Kilogram-force

A kilogram-force , or kilopond , is a gravitational metric unit of force. It is equal to the magnitude of the force exerted by one kilogram of mass in a gravitational field...

 (69 kN). The fourth stage was powered by a single Mage-1 solid rocket booster producing a thrust

Thrust

Thrust is a reaction force described quantitatively by Newton's second and third laws. When a system expels or accelerates mass in one direction the accelerated mass will cause a force of equal magnitude but opposite direction on that system....

 of 20 kN.

This design was kept in the Ariane series until Ariane 4

Ariane 4

Ariane 4 was an expendable launch system, designed by the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales and manufactured and marketed by its subsidiary Arianespace. Ariane 4 was justly known as the ‘workhorse’ of the Ariane family. Since its first flight on 15 June 1988 until the last, on 15 February 2003, it...

.

Launches

The first launch was on 24 December 1979, and was successful. The second launch, in 1980, failed shortly after launch due to a combustion instability in one of the Viking first stage engines. The third launch succeeded in orbiting three satellites, and the fourth and last qualification launch was also a success.

During the next launch, the first commercial one, the rocket ceased functioning after 7 minutes of flight due to a turbopump failure in the third stage. After a complete review of the launcher, the next 6 flights were all successful. The Giotto mission

Giotto mission

Giotto was a European robotic spacecraft mission from the European Space Agency, intended to fly by and study Halley's Comet. On 13 March 1986, the mission succeeded in approaching Halley's nucleus at a distance of 596 kilometers....

's spaceprobe was successfully launched on the tenth Ariane 1 (flight V14) on 2 July 1985.

The first SPOT

SPOT (satellites)

SPOT is a high-resolution, optical imaging Earth observation satellite system operating from space. It is run by Spot Image based in Toulouse, France...

 satellite was put into orbit

Orbit

In physics, an orbit is the gravitationally curved path of an object around a point in space, for example the orbit of a planet around the center of a star system, such as the Solar System...

 by the eleventh and last launch of Ariane 1 on 22 February 1986.

Launch history

Flight	Date	Launch Pad	Payload	Outcome	Remarks
L-01	24 December 1979	ELA-1 ELA-1 ELA-1, short for Ensemble de Lancement Ariane 1 , also known as Ensemble de Lancement Vega, ELV, and CECLES, is a launch pad at the Centre Spatial Guyanais in French Guyana...	CAT-1	Success	First Flight
L-02	23 May 1980	ELA-1 ELA-1 ELA-1, short for Ensemble de Lancement Ariane 1 , also known as Ensemble de Lancement Vega, ELV, and CECLES, is a launch pad at the Centre Spatial Guyanais in French Guyana...	Firewheel Subsat-1,2,3,4 Amsat P3A  CAT 2	Failure	Combustion instability in one of the Viking first stage engines
L-03	19 June 1981	ELA-1 ELA-1 ELA-1, short for Ensemble de Lancement Ariane 1 , also known as Ensemble de Lancement Vega, ELV, and CECLES, is a launch pad at the Centre Spatial Guyanais in French Guyana...	Meteosat 2 Meteosat The Meteosat series of satellites are geostationary meteorological satellites operated by EUMETSAT under the Meteosat Transition Programme and the Meteosat Second Generation program....   Apple  CAT 3	Success
L-04	20 December 1981	ELA-1 ELA-1 ELA-1, short for Ensemble de Lancement Ariane 1 , also known as Ensemble de Lancement Vega, ELV, and CECLES, is a launch pad at the Centre Spatial Guyanais in French Guyana...	MARECS 1  CAT 4	Success
L-5	10 September 1982	ELA-1 ELA-1 ELA-1, short for Ensemble de Lancement Ariane 1 , also known as Ensemble de Lancement Vega, ELV, and CECLES, is a launch pad at the Centre Spatial Guyanais in French Guyana...	MARECS B  Sirio 2	Failure	First commercial launch The rocket ceased functioning after 7 minutes of flight due to a turbopump failure in the third stage
L-6	16 June 1983	ELA-1 ELA-1 ELA-1, short for Ensemble de Lancement Ariane 1 , also known as Ensemble de Lancement Vega, ELV, and CECLES, is a launch pad at the Centre Spatial Guyanais in French Guyana...	ECS 1  Amsat P3B (Oscar 10)	Success
L-7	19 October 1983	ELA-1 ELA-1 ELA-1, short for Ensemble de Lancement Ariane 1 , also known as Ensemble de Lancement Vega, ELV, and CECLES, is a launch pad at the Centre Spatial Guyanais in French Guyana...	Intelsat 507	Success
L-8	5 February 1984	ELA-1 ELA-1 ELA-1, short for Ensemble de Lancement Ariane 1 , also known as Ensemble de Lancement Vega, ELV, and CECLES, is a launch pad at the Centre Spatial Guyanais in French Guyana...	Intelsat 508	Success
V-9	23 May 1984	ELA-1 ELA-1 ELA-1, short for Ensemble de Lancement Ariane 1 , also known as Ensemble de Lancement Vega, ELV, and CECLES, is a launch pad at the Centre Spatial Guyanais in French Guyana...	Spacenet 1	Success
V-14	2 July 1985	ELA-1 ELA-1 ELA-1, short for Ensemble de Lancement Ariane 1 , also known as Ensemble de Lancement Vega, ELV, and CECLES, is a launch pad at the Centre Spatial Guyanais in French Guyana...	Giotto Giotto mission Giotto was a European robotic spacecraft mission from the European Space Agency, intended to fly by and study Halley's Comet. On 13 March 1986, the mission succeeded in approaching Halley's nucleus at a distance of 596 kilometers....	Success
V-16	22 February 1986	ELA-1 ELA-1 ELA-1, short for Ensemble de Lancement Ariane 1 , also known as Ensemble de Lancement Vega, ELV, and CECLES, is a launch pad at the Centre Spatial Guyanais in French Guyana...	SPOT 1 SPOT (satellites) SPOT is a high-resolution, optical imaging Earth observation satellite system operating from space. It is run by Spot Image based in Toulouse, France...   Viking Viking (satellite) Viking was Sweden's first satellite. It was launched on an Ariane 1 rocket as a piggyback payload together with the French satellite SPOT 1, on February 22, 1986. Operations ended on May 12, 1987...	Success	Last Flight

External links

• The Ariane rocket family