Ariane-5 rocket to be relaunched in September
Ariane-5 rocket to be relaunched in September
JAKARTA (JP): The European aerospace company Arianespace will
launch in September the qualification flight of the second
Ariane-5, the latest generation of rocket which exploded seconds
after its maiden launch last June.
If the launch is successful, a third launch would take place
four or five months after the second one, Arianespace's
president, Charles Bigot, told The Jakarta Post during his visit
here last week.
"Ariane will then take over the Ariane-5 project for
commercial and operational affairs in early 1998," he said.
The Ariane-5 rocket, the first of a new generation of
European-made spacecraft launchers, exploded in early June 1996
after lift-off from its launchpad at Kourou, French Guiana.
About 40 seconds after take-off, the unmanned rocket flipped
over before the explosion. The Ariane-5 was carrying four
scientific satellites.
The Ariane-5 project, jointly developed with the European
Space Agency (ESA) since 1988, costs US$8 billion. The new
generation rocket is expected to maintain Europe's edge in
launching heavy satellites.
According to ESA, the explosion of the first Ariane-5 rocket
was caused by a failure of computer software that determines the
rocket's position during take-off.
Modifying the revamped software program could cost between 2
percent and 4 percent of the agency's total Ariane-5 program
budget.
If the first launch had been successful, Ariane-5, designed to
carry a payload of up to 6.8 tons into geostationary orbit, was
scheduled this year to launch several satellites, including
Indostar-1 for PT Malicak, Indonesia, in July or August.
Arianespace still relies on Ariane-4, which has a payload
capacity of 4.5 tons, a far less powerful rocket than Ariane-5.
Arianespace will also launch by early 1999 the Telkom-1
satellite for state-owned PT Telkom. Telkom-1 will be the third
Indonesian satellite launched by Arianespace, following the
Palapa C2 satellite in May last year and Indostar.
Bigot said there had been no losses due to last year's
unexpected explosion.
"This is part of the qualification phases, any risks have been
projected," he said.
The Ariane-5 program is the first satellite project to gain a
free relaunch in case of failure, which relieves satellite
operators of the need to purchase costly launch insurance.
Previously, commercial satellite launchers had not guaranteed
satellite launches. When a rocket fails, the entire financial
burden is on the customers, even if the failure comes from the
launcher. (icn)