Final lift-off for Europe’s Ariane 5 rocket
Visit our website:
http://www.france24.com
Like us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English
Follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/France24_en
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 A final lift-off after 27 years of service.
00:06 Ariane is known as Europe's reliable satellite launcher.
00:11 Five out of its 116 flights have failed.
00:15 But it had a rocky start when its initial flight exploded in 1996.
00:22 A decade later, Ariane was the world's leading satellite launcher with a 60% market share.
00:28 It's Ariane 5 who sent NASA's James Webb telescope to space.
00:34 Since the creation of SpaceX, Ariane 5 has become too expensive.
00:40 Ariane 6, its successor, is expected to launch more satellites into various orbits for a
00:47 price that is 40% to 50% cheaper.
00:50 But the complex rocket is three years late on its schedule.
00:55 As Ariane 5 retires and until Ariane 6 is operational, Europe will not have its own
01:01 launch system.
01:02 The latest trend is to develop small launchers for light satellites, something that is easier
01:09 to carry out.
01:12 Europe is all in favour of these small launchers, which are a sort of revolution.
01:16 They allow us to send many small satellites to space in a short period of time.
01:21 These launches are cheaper too.
01:22 Many companies are developing those launchers and Europe is at the heart of that market.
01:28 The space economy is estimated at around 386 billion US dollars in revenue and it's expected
01:36 to continue growing and hit a potential 1 trillion US dollars by 2040.