Ariane rockets 1 through 5

The first Ariane launcher blasted into the sky on Christmas Eve, 1979. An early Christmas present for the thousands of workers throughout Europe and at Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou who were involved in its development and production.

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 began to give way to the more powerful Ariane 2 and Ariane 3 launchers.

Altogether, there were 24 successful launches from the first Ariane 1 launching in 1979 to the final Ariane 3 in 1989.

All three launchers were slightly different. The first and third stages of Ariane 2 and Ariane 3 were longer than those of Ariane 1, while Ariane 3 had strap-on boosters containing liquid or solid propellant, making it the most flexible and powerful of the three launchers, capable of launching a payload of 1.7 tonnes.

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 made 113 successful launches. The Ariane 4 proved ideal for launching communications and Earth observation satellites as well as those for scientific research.

This launcher was extremely versatile. The first stage could hold two or four strap-on boosters, or none at all. This meant that it could lift into orbit satellites weighing from 2000 to nearly 4300 kg in GTO, nearly three times as much as the Ariane 3 launcher.

Ariane 5 was Europe’s principal launch system for more than a quarter century, flying 117 times between 1996 and 2023 from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana.

This heavy launcher more than doubled the mass-to-orbit capacity of Ariane 4, which flew from 1988 until 2003. Like its predecessor, Ariane 5 was a favourite of the telecommunications industry with its need to put large payloads into very high geosynchronous orbits. With its increased capacity, Ariane 5 was able to orbit two large telecommunications satellites on a single launch, or to push very large payloads into deep space.