Ariane

Ariane was Europe's first rocket launched on December 24, 1979. It was a three-stage experiment rocket launched from Western Europe's jungle launching pad which performed a perfect flight.

This joint European rocket was successfully launched after five years of preparation and several setbacks.

Almost 50 metres long and weighing 210 tons, Ariane underlined Europe's claim to be the third space power after the United States and the former Soviet Union. Like the USA and the USSR, Europe then became in a position to launch heavy satellites for news and television broadcasts, weather forecasting, navigation of ships and airplanes and the search for raw materials. The total expenditure involved in the project was some $1.6 billion.

The success of Ariane was particularly striking in view of the many setbacks with the European rocket in the sixties and the early seventies of the ninetheenth century.

The credit for success of the Ariane launch goes not only to European Space Agency but also to the French management which was responsible for the construction of the satellite-launcher.

The European space industry consisted of ten countries which took part in the project.

Ariane was fuelled by a combination of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. This is a high energy fuel but is also highly explosive, and therefore, very difficult to handle.

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Arianism, Ariankuppam Vidhan Sabha Constituency, Arianna Stassinopoulos Huffington, Ariano, Arica