The Launcher Programme

Through the Ariane Programme, ESA has provided Europe with autonomous access to space, the strategic key to the development of all space applications. Moreover, having been developed initially for the sake of European autonomy, the Ariane launcher has become Europe's most spectacular commercial space success by virtue of the volume of business and the share of the World market that it has achieved. This in turn has made it one of the most important factors in Europe's credibility as a space power.

Ariane's commercial success is also very important for the contribution it makes to the constant effort required to maintain autonomous access to space: the launch rate during the period 1989-1994 averaged seven a year, and 70-80% of these flights were commercial.

Its economic benefit in terms of volume of recurrent production and launch activities performed by, or contracted to, European industry is no less impressive, representing more than three times the financial investment made by Governments in the launcher R&D programmes for Ariane-1, Ariane-2, Ariane-3, Ariane-4

This strategic prerequisite for European space applications must not be taken for granted: it demands a constant effort to maintain the production and launch facilities and industrial expertise to keep up a minimum launch rate, and thereby guarantee ready and reliable access to space. Moreover, the World market for satellite launches is at best stable at the present time, while the number of launch suppliers in this narrow and sensitive sector is increasing, with no clearly defined and observed 'rules of the road'.

For all of these reasons, and also because the credibility of Europe's space activities in general is now so closely bound up with Ariane, which has been responsible for the development of a soundly based and credible industry, the success of Ariane-5 on the launch services market is one of the keys to Europe's future in space and must be kept in the forefront of the Agency's strategy.

Ariane-1

Ariane-2

Ariane-3

Ariane-4

Programme Development to Date

Ariane-4

After the Ariane-1 and Ariane-2/3 versions had been developed and brought into service, ESA decided in April 1982 to develop the Ariane-4 launcher. The programme has been guided by the following main objectives:

• the need to both adapt the launcher to changing market demands (increasing satellite mass) and maintain the dual-launch capability in order to optimise its cost-effectiveness
• the need to take a more effective approach to launch operations, requiring a new launch site (construction of new satellite integration buildings) allowing a higher launch rate (one per month).

The first Ariane-4 qualification flight successfully took place in June 1988.

The concept chosen for developing and qualifying the new Ariane-4 launcher was modular both for the lower section and the upper section, which can therefore accommodate very varied payloads in terms of size and mass. Geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) lift-capability varies from 2100 to 4700 kg according to the launcher version used.

The Ariane family

Arianespace

In 1979 the Agency's Member States decided to set up a private industrial company to be responsible for commercialising the launcher (production, marketing and sales and launch of payloads from the Guiana Space Centre). Arianespace, whose shareholders are the main contractors for Ariane programmes and a dozen or so banks, is an acknowledged success story, having carried out 68 launches to date and put 119 satellites into orbit. Arianespace currently has orders representing about 60% of the World market.

By the time Ariane-5 takes over, and after a transition period during which customers will be offered the services of both launchers, a total of 104 Ariane-1 to -4 launchers (76 Ariane-4's) will have been built and sold, thereby providing an average production turnover /development cost ratio of about 3:1.

It is important to mention that this success is due in no small measure to a series of product support programmes accompanying Ariane production, all of which aim to consolidate launcher relia-bility.

Ariane-5

Development and status
In order to maintain a market-sensitive European vehicle, a new generation of Ariane launchers is soon to be made available in the form of Ariane-5, whose development Europe is currently finalising. The basic objectives in developing this new generation of launcher are:

• low recurrent launch costs

• very high reliability and safety factors

• large payload capacity for placing approximately 5970 kg into GTO in single-launch or 6800 kgin dual-launch configuration and 18 t into low Earth orbit.

These objectives have prompted an Ariane-5 launcher configuration comprised essentially of:

• two boosters, each containing 237 t of solid propellant

• a cryogenic core stage loaded with 130.6 t of liquid oxygen and 25.6 t of liquid hydrogen

• a storable-propellant stage containing 3.2 t of Mono-Methyl Hydrazine and 6.5 t of Nitrogen Peroxide.

• a vehicle equipment bay housing and activating the launcher's main electrical equipment

• a fairing protecting the payload when passing through dense atmospheric layers

• a carrying structure (Speltra) made of composite material (impregnated carbon fibre) for dual launches.

The Ariane-5 development programme is on schedule for the first two qualification flights (501 and 502) and the maiden operational launch in 1996.

Ariane-5 Vulcain engine

Eight years after the programme started and with the first flight only a few months away, there is good reason to feel confident about the future of the Ariane-5 launcher:

• The status and refinement of the system studies (trajectory, flight loads, aerodynamics, thermal, flight guidance/control, safety, etc.) have confirmed the choices made and consolidated the chosen launcher configuration.
• Using European production facilities has demonstrated their sound performance and operational availability, as well as the excellent output of the Guiana plant producing the propellant grain for the two solid-booster lower segments (107.6 t and 106.5 t, out of a total 237 t).
• The Vulcain cryogenic engine has undergone full-thrust testing for a maximum of 900 s. To date, the cumulative duration of firings (over 240 using 14 development engines) is nearing 72 000 s (nominal flight duration: 600 s). Overall tests on the cryogenic main stage - proof pressure, vibration and test-stand firings in its configuration with reinforced tanks ('battleship campaign') and flight configuration ('M campaign') tests - have started at the Guiana Space Centre (CSG), in Kourou, French Guiana.
• In February 1993, the largest solid booster engine ever built by European industry was fired at CSG. Since then, six nominal-duration tests have been successfully carried out.
• Work on the upper-section storable-propellant stage has proceeded in line with the other launcher elements and its qualification phase has started. Its Aestus engine - planned nominal firing time 1100 s (with possible re-ignition in flight) - has successfully completed long-duration testing (1380 s plus). In all, ten development and qualification engines have clocked up 15 500 s of firing time, including 300 s in vacuum simulating flight conditions.
• The vehicle equipment bay houses most of the launcher's command and control equipment (including two inertial platforms, two onboard computers, electrical flight control and safety systems) and has likewise started the final phase of overall qualification testing.
• The fairing, which has undergone in-vacuo separation tests, has also reached a development status allowing it to be declared ground-qualified.
• The Speltra has also successfully completed all of its qualification tests.

Ariane-5 fairing acoustic test

Ariane-5 booster firing test

Economic context

Despite major changes on the international mar-ket (new competition from the countries of the former Soviet Union and China), Ariane-5 is still well adapted to changing launch requirements - in particular placing 3 to 4 t satellites into geostationary orbit. Moreover, Ariane-5 remains a credible transport vehicle for Space Station elements in low Earth orbit, logistical vehicles on automatic flights, or a crewed transfer vehicle.

Apart from the completion of the development programme culminating in two demonstration flights, Ariane-5's success is conditioned by two essential elements:

• the setting up and execution of the Ariane-5 production programme, and the exploitation and commercialisation of the new launcher
• the implementation of the Ariane-5 complementary programmes - the principle of which was accepted by the Council at Ministerial Level in November 1992 - which will support the launcher throughout its operational life and must also prepare it to meet evolving European and international launching requirements.

Whereas European industry has initiated the first of these actions with the recent signature of a firm contract for the first 14 Ariane-5 production launchers, with an option for 50 more, the Governments of the ESA Member States have to implement the second measure.

Ariane-5 M-campaign test

Ariane-5 Vulcain engine firing test

New Ariane-5 ground infrastructure

The Launch Site

The Ariane-5 launcher calls for new infrastructure. A new Ariane launch site, ELA-3, has therefore been developed at the Guiana Space Centre (CSG).

ELA-3

This project, on which work was started on 14 November 1988, is the largest ever undertaken in this French department. Covering a 2100 hectare site, the work involved - apart from ELA-3 development - building the Guiana propellant plant, solid-propellant booster test stand and a cryogenic propellant production plant.

Some 4 million cubic meters of earth was excavated; 80 000 cubic meters of concrete was mixed and reinforced with 7000 t of steel; 40 km of roadway was built and a 7 km dual-railtrack was laid in order to move the launch table weighing almost 900 t. Lastly, 20 000 t of steel frame was erected, equivalent to three Eiffel Towers! Overall, the project involved a total of five million working hours in Guiana.

Layout of the Guiana Space Centre

CSG

The main tasks of CSG are to:

• organise and coordinate launch site operations
• acquire and process launch data (trajectography, telemetry, etc.) with the help of the downrange stations
• ensure the safety of personnel and protect assets and the environment during preparatory operations and launches
• - provide the necessary logistical support for launcher and payload preparation.

In order to obtain telemetry data for eastward launches, CSG draws on its Kourou, Natal, Ascension Island, Libreville, and soon Malindi, stations. Northerly launches are supported by NASA stations.

Tracking, which is primarily intended to ensure in-flight safety, essentially draws on radar facilities set up in Kourou, Cayenne and Natal.

Typical launch trajectory into GTO

The Complementary Programmes

Ariane-5 Evolution (Ariane-5E)

One of the basic reasons behind Ariane's success has been its continuous adaptation to meet evolving market needs. In this context, the increase in performance required from Ariane-5 is determined by three factors:

• the continuing increase in the mass of communications satellites
• the need to maintain the dual-launch mode for GTO payloads
• the arrival in the marketplace of competitors offering attractive performance levels.

As it is essential for economic reasons that Ariane-5 be capable of systematically performing dual launches into GTO, it has to evolve from a 5970 kg to a 7400 kg GTO lift capability. Ariane-5's potential allows this performance to be achieved with the same architecture, via limited modifications (Vulcain Mk2, lighter dual-launch structure, etc.) without reducing the launcher's reliability, the reduction of recurrent launch costs also being a programme objective.

In addition to meeting the aim of developing an enhanced version of the Ariane-5 launcher, the Ariane-5E programme will allow a solid industrial base to be maintained in Europe in key specialised engineering disciplines (mainly propulsion-associated).

ARTA Ariane-5

Experience acquired with Ariane-3 and Ariane-4 has shown that it is vital to carry out, in parallel with the production programme, a production accompaniment programme to maintain and consolidate the qualification of the hardware produced and the launcher's reliability over time. This requirement is magnified by the fact that Ariane-5 uses technologies new for Europe, technologies that will require constant attention after the qualification cycle has been completed.

Ariane-5

On the basis of that earlier experience, the accompaniment activities can be divided into two categories - continuous and one-off activities. The former include limit tests on sampled items, recovery and inspection of P230 booster flight hardware, detailed analysis of production launch flight-data, and maintenance of test facilities. The one-off activities include the addressing of any ground or flight anomalies, and dealing with equipment, material or component obsoles-cences, including preventive measures to reduce dependence on suppliers of critical products.

The ARTA Ariane-5 programme should support the Ariane-5 launcher throughout its operational lifetime. An initial commitment is being sought from Governments for the period 1996 2000.

Ariane-5 Infrastructure

The political and commercial success of the Ariane-1 through Ariane-4 launchers has been due to a number of factors, not least the support given by European Governments to Ariane operations. In the present context, a joint Government/Industry effort is being set up to cope with the Ariane-4/Ariane-5 transition and the start-up of Ariane-5 production; this will be accomplished by the Ariane-5 Infrastructure programme which is to finance the fixed costs of maintaining the Ariane-5 production and launch infrastructures, which are strategic, ESA- owned assets. In addition, this programme will permit more attractive pricing to be offered to European Government users.

Conclusion

The development of the Ariane-5 launcher is nearing completion, with the first hot tests using complete stages having already successfully taken place and the first launch (flight 501) scheduled for early 1996.

Operational launcher production has been given the go-ahead by Arianespace, which has placed orders with the firms working on the programme for 14 launchers, and the first operational launch (flight 503) is planned for late 1996.

The preparatory phase of the Ariane-5 Evolution programme started in April 1995. The next steps, which still have to be approved by the Member States, involve the adoption of the following programmes:

• Ariane-5 Evolution, which will guarantee the launcher's long-term adaptability to market demand and allow Europe to affirm its resolve to keep pace with those countries capable of permanently exploiting, and continually pushing back the frontiers of, space technology.

• The ARTA and infrastructure accompaniment programmes, which will maintain the operational launcher's reliability and competitiveness, which are essential to the production programme in order to face international competition on an equal footing.