Ariane 5 Launch of HOT BIRD 9 and W2M

This Saturday launch of the Ariane 5 rocket lifts two communication satellites to orbit: The HOT BIRD 9 (primary payload) and W2M (secondard payload).

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Ariane 5
• Arianespace
• Satellite
• Rocket
• Launch
• HOT BIRD 9
• W2M
• SpaceVidcast

[U5K0]

thanks for posting this. night launches are great!! :)

[MrFireAss]

beautiful.

[mariusrodrigo]

@Armigo91 No, Ariane is qualified for Human Spaceflight, and it was designed to launch the Hermès shuttle.

It's just a matter of money.

[RobertsDigital]

@Armigo91 The European Space Agency has taken over from Nasa on the mars mission....tthey are preparing to send men to mars. However Nasa will be involved too.The European Space Agency was the first to land a probe on one of saturns moons (Titan), where hydrocarbon lakes containing natural gas was discovered.

[FR3DisGAY]

damn that fat thing takes off fast

[Armigo91]

@Briggie

With a shuttle mounted on top off it acceleration would be less, main tank would be bigger. The shuttle main tank is bigger then the ariane. Just remodified as the ariane 5 is only used for payloads. Good, but cheap option. Exspecially if your not using it for man-rated flights.

Luckily it never became a shuttle,

A similar design to the shuttle is a bad design.

[Armigo91]

@jonmikelk

Thats why the ariane 5 is used for payloads, and no human spaceflight.

Youd be squeezed like a pancake sitting on top of this rocket.

[Briggie]

@blablubb12345

I see, thank you. I don't know if they changed anything since I read it last, the Wikipedia article on it wasn't very clear about that, and made it sound like it still was. Admittedly, I am not exactly knowledgeable on European spaceflight. Since we (the U.S) are not going to have manned spaceflight soon (and most likely not for quite some time), I came across an article about the Ariane 5.

[blablubb12345]

@Briggie

The A5 was never man-rated, that requirement was removed after the Hermes project died. But as it was designed with man-rating in mind, only minor modifications would be needed. Initial acceleration would not be a problem, it's about the same as the Space Shuttle.

[Briggie]

Are these still man-rated? I read that it was originally built to lift ESA's shuttle ,which didn't come through. It's acceleration seems to be pretty high for something that can carry people.