Europe's Ariane 503 rocket was launched on October 20th, 1998. With ESA's ARD [Atmospheric Re-entry Demonstrator] and the Maqsat 3 dummy satellite as passengers, the launch successfully completed the series of three test flights, thus qualifying the new launcher for commercial use.
Credits
ESA/CNES/Arianespace
License
ESA Standard Licence
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Ariane 5 history
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