 | | | | |
| | | | | |
|
Launch vehicles Ariane 5 ECAAriane 5 ESAriane 5 MEVegaSoyuzLauncher history A look at the past Ariane 1, 2, 3Ariane 4Ariane 5 GenericAriane 5 EvolutionAriane 5 GSLaunches Next launchLaunch updateMultimedia Image galleryVideo galleryRSS feeds Launchers on your desktop Screensavers and wallpaperServices
| | | | | | | | Article Images |  |
A look at the past
| The first Ariane launcher (Ariane L01) blasted into the sky on Christmas Eve 1979. An early Christmas present for the thousands of workers throughout Europe and at Europe’s spaceport in Kourou who were involved in its development and production.
Ariane 1 was designed primarily to put two telecommunications satellites at a time into orbit, thus reducing costs. As the size of the satellites grew Ariane 1 began to give way to the more powerful Ariane-2 and Ariane-3 launchers.
Altogether, 11 successful Ariane-1 launches took place between 1979 and 1986.
Credits: ESA | |  |  | |
| | | | What's in a name?
| | | | Last update: 21 July 2009 | |
| | Ariane 5 Vega Next-generation launchers Launchers for kids
|
HI-RES JPEG (Size: 