Ariane 3 - Wikipedia

Ariane 3
Size
Function	Carrier rocket
Manufacturer	Aérospatiale Arianespace
Country of origin	Europe
Height	49 metres (161 ft)
Diameter	3.8 metres (12 ft)
Mass	237,000 kilograms (522,000 lb)
Stages	Three or four
Capacity
Payload to GTO
Mass	2,700 kilograms (6,000 lb)

Associated rockets
Family	Ariane
Launch history
Status	Retired
Total launches	11
Success(es)	10
Failure(s)	1
First flight	4 August 1984
Last flight	12 July 1989
[edit on Wikidata]

Ariane 3 was a European expendable carrier rocket, which was used for eleven launches between 1984 and 1989. It was a member of the Ariane family of rockets, derived from the Ariane 2, although it flew before this. It was designed by the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales, and produced by Aérospatiale in France.

The Ariane 3 followed the same basic design as the earlier Ariane 1, but incorporated modifications made for the Ariane 2. Unlike the Ariane 2, two solid-fuelled PAP strap-on booster rockets were used to augment the first stage at liftoff.

The core of the Ariane 3 was essentially an Ariane 2. The first stage was powered by four Viking 2B bipropellant engines, burning Nitrogen tetroxide in an UH 25 oxidiser, which was a mixture of three parts UDMH and one part Hydrazine. The second stage was powered by a Viking 4B, which used the same fuel-oxidiser combination. The third stage used a cryogenically fuelled HR7-B engine, burning liquid hydrogen in liquid oxygen. On some flights, a Mage 2 kick motor was flown as a fourth stage.

Launch history

The Ariane 3 made its maiden flight on 4 August 1984, almost two years before Ariane 2 from which it had been derived, placing the ECS-2 and Télécom 1A satellites into geosynchronous transfer orbit. Eleven were launched with ten successes and one failure. The failure occurred on the fifth flight, launched on 12 September 1985, when the third stage failed to ignite resulting in the rocket failing to achieve orbit. The ECS-3 and Spacenet-3 satellites were lost in the failure.

The Ariane 3 was quickly replaced by the more capable Ariane 4, resulting in a comparatively small number of launches. It made its final flight on 12 July 1989, carrying the Olympus F1 satellite.

References

"Ariane 1, 2, 3". Launchers. European Space Agency. Retrieved 2009-04-27.
"Ariane 1-3". Ariane Heritage. Arianespace. Retrieved 2009-04-27.
Krebs, Gunter. "Ariane-3". Gunter's Space Page. Retrieved 2009-04-27.
Wade, Mark. "Ariane". Encyclopedia Astronautica. Retrieved 2009-04-27.

External links

Cutaway drawing of the Ariane 3

Ariane (rocket family)

Rockets

In development	Ariane 6 (Q4 2023) Ariane Next
Retired	Ariane 1 Ariane 2 Ariane 3 Ariane 4 Ariane 5

Launch sites

Guiana Space Centre (Kourou)
- ELA-1
- ELA-2
- ELA-3
- ELA-4

Engines

Launches

List of launches

Flights

Organizations

Manufacturing	ArianeGroup Airbus Space Aérospatiale (merged) Safran Aircraft Engines Beyond Gravity MT Aerospace SABCA Nammo
Launch provider	Arianespace
Related	European Space Agency CNES

Proposals	SUSIE
Cancelled	Adeline Ariane 5 ME DC4EU Hermes
Retired	Automated Transfer Vehicle Europa

Category
Multimedia

v t e Orbital launch systems
List of orbital launch systems Comparison of orbital launch systems
Current	Angara 1.2 A5 Atlas V Ceres 1 1S Chollima-1 Electron Falcon 9 Block 5 Falcon Heavy Firefly Alpha Gravity-1 GSLV H-IIA H3 Hyperbola-1 Jielong 1 3 KAIROS^† Kaituozhe 2 Kinetica-1 Kuaizhou 1 1A 11 Long March 2C 2D 2F 3A 3B/E 3C 4B 4C 5 5B 6 6A 7 7A 8 11 11H LVM3 Minotaur I IV V C Nuri OS-M1^† Pegasus XL Proton-M PSLV Qaem 100 Qased RS1^† Shavit 2 Simorgh SLS Block 1 Soyuz-2 2.1a / STA 2.1b / STB 2-1v SSLV Starship Tianlong-2 Unha Vega original C Vulcan Centaur Zenit 3SL 3SLB 3F Zhuque 2
In development	Antares 330 Ariane 6 Bloostar Cyclone-4M Epsilon S Eris Gravity-2 Hyperbola-2 Irtysh Kuaizhou 21 31 Long March 9 10 12 Miura 5 MLV Neutron New Glenn New Line 1 NGLV OS-M 2 4 Orbex Prime Pallas-1 Red Dwarf SLS Block 1B Block 2 Soyuz-7 Terran R Tianlong-3 VLM Vega E Zero Zhuque 3 Zuljanah
Retired	Antares 110 120 130^† 230 230+ Ariane 1 2 3 4 5 ASLV Athena I II Atlas B D E/F G H I II III LV-3B SLV-3 Able^† Agena Centaur Black Arrow Conestoga^† Delta A B C D E G J L M N 0100 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 II III IV IV Heavy Diamant Dnepr Energia Epsilon Europa I^† II^† Falcon 1 Falcon 9 v1.0 v1.1 v1.2 "Full Thrust" Feng Bao 1 GSLV Mk I H-I H-II H-IIB Juno I Juno II Kaituozhe-1 Kosmos original 1 2/2I 3 3M Lambda 4S LauncherOne Long March 1 1D^† 2A 2E 3 3B 4A Mu 4S 3C 3H 3S 3SII V N1^† N-I N-II Naro-1 Paektusan^† Pilot-2^† R-7 Luna Molniya M L Polyot Soyuz original FG L M U U2 Soyuz/Vostok Sputnik Voskhod Vostok L K 2 2M R-29 Shtil' Volna^† Rocket 3 Safir 1 1A 1B Saturn I IB V Scout X-1 Blue Scout II^† X-2^† X-2M X-3 X-3M X-4 X-2B^† B A B-1 D-1 A-1 E-1 F-1 G-1 Shavit original 1 SLV Space Shuttle SPARK^† Sparta SS-520 Start-1 Terran 1^† Thor Able Ablestar 1 2 Agena A B D Burner 1 2 Delta DSV-2U Thorad-Agena SLV-2G SLV-2H Titan II GLV IIIA IIIB IIIC IIID IIIE 34D 23G CT-3 IV Tsyklon R-36-O original 2 3 Universal Rocket UR-500 Proton Proton-K Rokot Strela Vanguard VLS-1^† Zenit 2 2M 2FG Zhuque 1^†
Classes	Sounding rocket Small-lift launch vehicle Medium-lift launch vehicle Heavy-lift launch vehicle Super heavy-lift launch vehicle
This Template lists historical, current, and future space rockets that at least once attempted (but not necessarily succeeded in) an orbital launch or that are planned to attempt such a launch in the future Symbol ^† indicates past or current rockets that attempted orbital launches but never succeeded (never did or has yet to perform a successful orbital launch)

v t e European orbital launch systems
Active	Vega
In development	Ariane 6 Ariane Next Bloostar Haas 2b Haas 2CA Miura 5 North Star RFA One Skylon Spectrum
Retired	Ariane 1 2 3 4 5 Black Arrow Diamant Europa
Cancelled	Aldebaran Ariane 5 ME Ariane M Capricornio Haas Hopper HOTOL Hyperion SSTO Liberty Liquid Fly-back Booster Derivatives BAC Mustard OTRAG SOAR