The development started in 1973 by
ESA. It took 8 years and 2 billion Euros to build Ariane 1. Finally,
Christmas Eve, 1979, Ariane 1 proved to be worth the time and
money that invested. No (significant) problems occurred, and the launch from
Kourou was successful.
Ariane 1 was originally
designed to be able to put two satellites at a time into orbit (to reduce cost). Ariane 1 was the first
launch vehicle of
the Ariane-series, where the newest design is
Ariane 5. Ariane 1 was also first successful European commercial launch vehicle.
As satellites grew bigger, Ariane 1 was not big enough anymore. This led to the construction of
Ariane 2 and
Ariane 3. Altogether 11* launches took place in the years 1979 through 1986. The 22nd of February 1986 would be the last launch of an Ariane 1 vehicle. After that it was retired, since New Ariane-designs had taken over its place.
*2 of these launches failed.
Technical Information::
Height: 47,4 m
Diameter: 3,8 m
Launch Prize: 32.000.000 USD (1985)
Weight: 207,2 tonnes
Liftoff Mass: 210 tonnes
Maximum Payload: 1,83 tonnes
Ariane 1 consists of 4 stages:
Stage 1:
Length: 18,4 m
Gross Mass: 160.030 Kg
Empty Mass: 13.750 Kg
Thrust: 282.660 kgf.
Burn time: 145 sec
Stage 2:
Length: 11.50 m
Gross Mass: 37.130 kg.
Empty Mass: 3.625 kg
Thrust: 73.518 kgf
Burn time: 132 sec
Stage 3:
Length: 10.23 m
Gross Mass: 9.687 kg
Empty Mass: 1.457 kg
Thrust: 6.289 kgf
Burn Time: 563 sec
Stage 4:
Length: 1.13 m
Gross Mass: 369 kg
Empty Mass: 34 kg
Thrust: 1.978 kgf
Burn time: 50 sec
Ariane 1 launch dates:
-
1979 Dec 24 17:14
-
1980 May 23 14:29 (Failure)
-
1981 Jun 19 12:32
-
1981 Dec 20 01:29
-
1982 Sep 09 02:12 (Failure)
-
1983 Jun 16 11:59
-
1983 Oct 19 00:45
-
1984 Mar 05 00:50
-
1984 May 23 01:33
-
1985 Jul 02 11:23*
-
1986 Feb 22 01:44
*This time Ariane 1 carried Giotto into orbit, which later would photograph Halley's Comet.
Sources:
-
ESA web-site
-
Arianespace.com
-
My local library.