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Aviation History
1980
1980 - 0005.PDF
FLIGHT International, 5 January 1980 Ariane makes successful first flight Europe has a lift-off as Ariane leaves the pad in Kourou, French Guiana, at the start of an almost perfect first flight. Panels falling off the rocket provide thermal protection for Ariane's second stage before flight and are jettisoned just after lift-off. The European Space Agency claims Ariane to be the first multi-stage launcher that has been completely successful on its maiden flight EUROPE'S Ariane launcher made a successful first flight on December 24 reports David Velupillai from Kourou, French Guiana. Ariane left the launch pad at 1715hr GMT after several minor delays, drawing a white line in the clear sunny sky. Separation of the first and second stages, later followed by jettison of the payload fairing, was clearly visible to observers on the ground. The payload separated from the spent third stage just over 15min after lift off, drawing jubilant cheers from engineers and technicians in the control room. Shortly afterwards it was announced that Ariane had placed its payload. The French space agency, CNES, responsible for developing Ariane on behalf of the European Space Agency (ESA), claims the flight to be the first completely successful debut of a multi-stage launcher. A total of four Ariane test flights are planned— the next three with satellite payloads (Flight, December 8). ESA requires at least two of the four flights to be successful before it will declare Ariane operational. The successful first flight is thus a tremendous boost to all the European engineers and technicians working on Ariane. Atlantic patrol During the Ariane launch France had a Dassualt-Breguet Atlantic in the air to patrol the sea downrange of the launch pad. The crew later reported it had observed splashdown of Ariane's first stage, several hund red kilometres downrange, and was able to guide a French Navy ship to the scene. First stage debris appar ently remained afloat for some time. At present Ariane's first stage is broken up by small explosive charges soon after separation, so as to minimise the size of debris falling to Earth. But ONES does have plans to recover the first stage from Ariane 3 onward. The survival of the first flight Ariane first stage is thus encouraging news. After payload separation during the first flight, controllers on the ground successfully performed two manoeuvres with the spent third stage. First they commanded the stage to pitch through 90° and shortly afterwards they got it to spin at several r.p.m. about its axis. The two separate manoeuvres are available for satellite payloads—the first for orientation of sensors and the second as an aid to spin-stabili sation. CNES says that Ariane is the first launcher to offer both the orientation and spin options to users. Ariane first flight succeeded only on the third launch attempt. The first launch attempt was made on December 15, when the countdown went smoothly until just after first stage engine ignition (Flight, December 29). During the several seconds after ignition engine-sensors report their performance to the launch computer. If all is well, clamps are released and the rocket lifts off. But during the first launch attempt sensor readings from one of the engines somehow became cor rupted, causing computers to cancel launch and shut down the engines after 8sec. Engineers then inspected the rocket, cured the sensor problem and made it ready for a second launch attempt on December 23. This try was also unsuccessful; but Ariane was ready for a successful launch the next day.
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