Qualification Over Ariane's Lifetime

A. González Blázquez & M. Eymard

In principle, the development programme for a launcher ends with the qualification phase, after which it enters operational service. In practice, however, the assessment of a launcher’s reliability is a continuing process and qualification-type activities proceed, as an extension of the development programme (as is done in aeronautics), over the course of the vehicle’s lifetime. Modifications to the launcher’s design are made whenever anomalies that might have an adverse effect on the stringent reliability requirements are detected during testing, to pre-empt their occurrence in flight.