Ariane 5’s legacy of launching science missions

ESA’s Ariane 5, manufactured by ArianeGroup, has been in operation since 1996 and has already completed more than 100 launches from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. It is 53 m high and 5.4 m diameter with a mass at liftoff of 780 tonnes.

Ariane 5 has already proved its capability to deliver scientific missions to the second Lagrange Point (L2) with the launch of Herschel and Planck in 2009.

Ariane 5 will deliver the James Webb Space Telescope directly into a highly precise L2 injection orbit. Webb will then continue its journey alone for four weeks, eventually arriving four times farther away than the Moon.

Webb is an international partnership between NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).