This video contains background footage on the loss of the first Cluster mission, launched by Ariane 501.
On 4 June 1996, four scientific satellites, Cluster, exploded 36 seconds after lift-off, as the first Ariane 5 launcher that should have put them into orbit tilted away from its nominal path and broke apart. Ten years of work on this research tool to study the Sun / Earth interaction in three dimensions was lost. In March 1997 ESA decided to rebuild the original Cluster mission.
This video includes images of the development and integration of the original Cluster satellites, the roll-out and launch of Ariane 501, the launch failure and the recovery of Cluster debris from the swamps of French Guiana. It also includes footage from the presentation of the results of the independent enquiry into the failure, and a sequence of graphics explaining what happened as the launcher's navigation system underwent a software error.
The sequence of footage is arranged as follows:
Graphic presentation of the Cluster missi

begin
00:58:51:00 esa logo
01:00:00:00 esa titles
01:00:33:00 title: The History of Cluster 1
01:00:43:00 contents
01:00:53:00 title: Video presentation of Cluster mission, June 1995
01:00:58:00 3-D graphics Cluster presentation
01:02:57:00 title: 3-D graphics of Cluster 1, gvs' Cluster 1
development and integration
01:03:07:00 Cluster 1 graphic sequences
01:04:09:05 gvs' Cluster 1 development and integration
01:04:48:00 title: Ariane 501 launch failure, gvs' launcher and
Cluster debris fallout and recovery
01:04:58:00 var s' Ariane 501 launch, explosion, debris recovery
01:06:46:00 title: Ariane 501 failure enquiry, graphic sequence on
reasons for Ariane 501 failure, with English commentary
01:06:56:00 gvs' Ariane 501 post-failure conference
01:08:24:00 graphics and live footage sequence with step by step
explanation of launch failure
01:10:15:00 end