The Atmospheric Reentry Demonstrator (ARD) is the first experimental payload developed by ESA to return from space by its own means. It is scheduled for launch in October 1998 on board Ariane 503, the third launch of the Ariane 5 vehicle.
The launch is from Europe's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. Its sub-orbital ballistic path will take it to a maximum altitude of 830 km before bringing it back into the atmosphere at 27 000 km/h.
Atmospheric friction and a series of parachutes will slow it down for a relatively soft landing in the Pacific Ocean, some 100 minutes after launch and three-quarters of the way around the world from its Kourou starting point.
The ARD will be Europe's first guided and controlled atmospheric re-entry vehicle and will provide much needed information to improve the technologies, which are critical for safe re-entry.
Re-entry technology is vital if ever Europe needed to return launchers, payloads or astronauts from space and it is for this reason that the ARD is important

10:00:00:00 ESA copyright clearance, Conditions Of Use caption
10:00:09:00 Opening Titles
10:00:45:00 A-Roll Caption
10:00:51:00 A-Roll Story
10:04:32:00 B-Roll Caption
10:04:37:00 ARD Graphics Caption
10:04:42:00 Ariane 5 launch graphic
10:05:00:00 main stage separation graphic
10:05:14:00 ARD ejection graphic
10:05:33:00 ARD re-entry graphics
10:06:00:00 opening of drag parachute graphic
10:06:11:00 main parachute opening graphic
10:06:16:00 landing at sea graphic
10:06:30:00 sea buoyancy graphic
10:06:40:00 ARD mission 2D graphics
10:06:57:00 ARD Europe's first Return from Space, caption
10:07:02:00 Jupiter launch control room, Kourou (French Guiana)
10:07:30:00 Ariane 5 launch sequence
10:08:37:00 ARD clean room sequence, at Aerospatiale's Bordeaux site
10:09:16:00 Examination of heat shield
10:10:32:00 Tracking shot of capsule
10:10:47:00 examining capsules interior cables
10:11:11:00 examination of thruster jets
10:11:38:00 tracking shot from behind equipment bay
10:11:51:00 rota