Feb 12 2005
From The Space Library
ESA successfully launched from its base in Kourou, French Guiana, an Ariane 5 ECA rocket, the world's most powerful commercial launcher, more than two years after its inaugural flight in December 2002 had ended in disaster. Capable of carrying up to 10 tons (9,071 kilograms or 9.07 tonnes) into space, the rocket lifted a 7.3-ton (6,623-kilogram or 6.62-tonne) payload consisting of two satellites~ the U.S.-Spanish XTAR-EUR satellite and the Dutch experimental SLOSHSAT-FLEVO microsatellite. Fitted with 12 wideband, X-band transponders, the XTAR-EUR geostationary satellite would provide military communications for the United States and Spain. For 10 days, the Netherlands' microsatellite SLOSHSAT-FLEVO, weighing just 127 kilograms (0.127 tonnes or 0.139 tons), would test the dynamics of de-ionized water in orbit. FLEVO was the acronym for Facility for Liquid Experimentation and Verification in Orbit, as well as the name of the latest Dutch province that the Netherlands had reclaimed from the sea. ESA also sent aloft a monitor, MAQ SAT, which remained attached to the rocket to gather data about the rocket's dynamic behavior, from launch through the release of the two satellites. In its inaugural launch, the rocket had veered off course, prompting Mission Control to destroy it. An inquiry board had determined that the cooling system of the rocket's Vulcain engine had malfunctioned. (Spacewarn Bulletin, no. 616, 1 March 2005, http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/spacewarn/spx616.html (accessed 26 August 2009); Associated Press, “European Rocket Delivers Payload,” 14 February 2005; Laurent Marot for Reuters, “Upgraded Ariane-5 Rocket Orbits Satellites,” 13 February 2005.)
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