Ariane 4

Ariane 4
	The 52nd Ariane 4 carrying TOPEX/Poseidon
Function	Expendable launch vehicle
Manufacturer	Arianespace
Country of origin	Europe
Size
Height	58.72 m (192.7 ft)
Diameter	3.8 m (12.5 ft)
Mass	240,000 - 470,000 kg (529,110 - 1,036,175 lb)
Stages	2
Capacity
Payload to LEO
Mass	5,000 - 7,600 kg(11,024 - 16,756 lb)
,
Payload to GTO
Mass	2,000 - 4,300 kg(4,410 - 9480 lb)
Launch history
Status	Retired
Launch sites	Kourou ELA-2
Total launches	116; (40: 7, 42P: 15, 42L: 13); (44P: 15, 44LP: 26, 44L: 40)
Success(es)	113; (40: 7, 42P: 14, 42L: 13); (44P: 15, 44LP: 25, 44L: 39)
Failure(s)	3 (42P: 1, 44L: 1, 44LP: 1)
First flight	40: 22 January 1990; 42P: 20 November 1990; 42L: 12 May 1993; 44P: 4 April 1991; 44LP: 15 June 1988; 44L: 5 June 1989
Last flight	40: 3 December 1999; 42P: 4 May 2002; 42L: 23 January 2002; 44P: 25 September 2001; 44LP: 27 November 2001; 44L: 15 February 2003
Boosters (Ariane 42L, 44LP or 44L) – PAL
No. boosters	0, 2 or 4
Powered by	Viking 6
Maximum thrust	752.003 kN (169,057 lbf)
Specific impulse	278 sec
Burn time	142 seconds
Propellant	N2O4/UDMH
	,
Boosters (Ariane 42P, 44LP or 44P) – PAP
No. boosters	0, 2 or 4
Maximum thrust	650 kN
Burn time	33 sec
Propellant	CTPB 1613
	,
First stage – L220
Powered by	4 Viking 5C
Maximum thrust	3,034.1 kN
Specific impulse	278 sec
Burn time	205 sec
Propellant	N2O4/UDMH
	,
Second stage – L33
Powered by	1 Viking 4B
Maximum thrust	720.965 kN
Specific impulse	296 sec
Burn time	132 seconds
Propellant	N2O4/UDMH
	,
Third stage – H10
Powered by	1 HM7-B
Maximum thrust	62.703 kN
Specific impulse	446 sec
Burn time	759 seconds
Propellant	Lox/LH2
	[edit on Wikidata]

Ariane 4 was an expendable launch system, designed by the Centre national d'études spatiales and manufactured and marketed by its subsidiary Arianespace. Ariane 4 was justly known as the "workhorse" of the Ariane family. Since its first flight on 15 June 1988 until the last, on 15 February 2003, it made 113 successful launches. It was known to be an extremely versatile launcher.^{[not verified in body]}

The Ariane 4 proved ideal for launching communications and Earth observation satellites as well as those for scientific research. During its working life, Ariane 4 captured 50% of the market in launching commercial satellites, demonstrating Europe's ability to compete in the commercial launch sector.^[1]

History

In 1973 eleven countries, called together by the European Space Agency (ESA), decided to take Europe down its own path in the space field. Six years later in 1979, Ariane 1 was launched from Kourou. Following development work on variants 1, 2 and 3, Ariane 4 was able to draw on the experience gained from these earlier variants.

The development program began in 1983 and the first successful launch was on 15 June 1988. The system became the basis for a European satellite launches with a record of 113 successful and three launch failures. Ariane 4 provided a payload increase from 1700 kg for Ariane 3 to a maximum of 4800 kg to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO). The record for Ariane 4 to GTO was 4946 kg.^[2]

The Ariane 4 Launch Team was awarded the Space Achievement Award by the Space Foundation in 2004.^[3]

Vehicle Description

The Ariane 4 was the ultimate development from the Ariane 1,2,3. Compared with the Ariane 2/3, the Ariane 4 featured stretched first (61%) and third stages, a strengthened structure, new propulsion bay layouts, new avionics, and the SPELDA (Structure Porteuse Externe de Lancement Double Ariane) dual-payload carrier. The basic 40 version used no strap-on motors, while the Ariane 42L, 44L, 42P, 44P, and 44LP versions used various combinations of solid and liquid boosters. Development was authorised in January 1982, with the objective of increasing payload by 90%. Total development cost 476 million 1986 ECU's.^[4]

Originally designed to place 2-4.2 tonne payloads in geostationary orbit, the six Ariane 4 variants, aided by strap-on boosters, enabled the launch of payloads in excess of 4.9 tonnes on several occasions.^{[citation needed]}

Variants

The rocket was used in a number of variants - it could be fitted with two or four additional solid (PAP - Propulseurs d'appoint à poudre) or liquid fueled booster rockets (PAL - Propulseurs d'appoint à liquide). The launcher included a satellite payload carrier system called Spelda (Structure porteuse externe de lancement double Ariane, French for 'External carrying structure for Ariane double launches') for launching more than one satellite at a time. The rocket captured nearly 60% of the world’s commercial launch services market, serving both European and international clients.^[5]

Ariane 4 AR 40 was the basic version, with three stages: 58.4 m high, a diameter of 3.8 m, a liftoff mass of 245 t and a maximum payload of 2100 kg to GTO or 5000 kg to Low Earth orbit (LEO). Main power was from four Viking 2B motors each producing 667 kN of thrust. The second stage had a single Viking 4B motor, and the third stage had an HM7-B liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen motor. AR 44L, with the maximum additional boost of four liquid fuel rocket strap-ons, was four-stage, weighed 470 t and could transfer a payload of 4730 kg to GTO or 7600 kg to LEO.

Model	PAL	PAP	Payload to GTO, kg	Launches	Successes	Failure date
AR 40	-	-	2100	7	7	-
AR 42P	-	2	2930	15	14	1 December 1994
AR 42L	2	-	3480	13	13	-
AR 44L	4	-	4720	40	39	22 February 1990
AR 44LP	2	2	4220	26	25	24 January 1994
AR 44P	-	4	3460	15	15	-

Launches

The inaugural flight of Ariane 4 took place in 1988. Since then has accomplished 116 flights with a success rate of more than 97%. The final launch of Ariane 4 rocket occurred on 15 February 2003, placing Intelsat 907 into geosynchronous orbit.^[6]

Retirement

In 2003, Arianespace phased out Ariane 4 in favour of the heavy-lift Ariane 5. In 2011, the medium-lift Soyuz ST complemented the offering of launch vehicles from the Guiana Space Centre. Spacecraft launched by the Soyuz reuse the payload platform and dispenser originally designed for the Ariane.^[7]

Comparable Rockets

References

^ "Ariane 4 / Launchers / Our Activities / ESA". ESA. 14 May 2004. Retrieved 13 June 2015.
^ "Ariane 4". Airbus Defence and Space. Retrieved 13 June 2015.
^ "Space Achievement Award". Space Symposium. Retrieved 13 June 2015.
^ "Encyclopedia Astronautica - Ariane". Encyclopedia Astronautica. Retrieved 13 June 2015.
^ "Ariane 4, un défi pour l'Europe spatiale" [Ariane 4 - A challenge for Europe's space industry] (in French). CNES. Retrieved 13 June 2015.
^ "Intelsat 907 Launched on Final Ariane 4 Mission". SpaceRef. 15 February 2003. Retrieved 13 June 2015.
^ "Soyuz User's Manual" (PDF). Arianespace. March 2012. Retrieved 13 June 2015.

External links

[1] "Ariane 4 / Launchers / Our Activities / ESA". ESA. 14 May 2004. Retrieved 13 June 2015.

[2] "Ariane 4". Airbus Defence and Space. Retrieved 13 June 2015.

[3] "Space Achievement Award". Space Symposium. Retrieved 13 June 2015.

[4] "Encyclopedia Astronautica - Ariane". Encyclopedia Astronautica. Retrieved 13 June 2015.

[5] "Ariane 4, un défi pour l'Europe spatiale" [Ariane 4 - A challenge for Europe's space industry] (in French). CNES. Retrieved 13 June 2015.

[6] "Intelsat 907 Launched on Final Ariane 4 Mission". SpaceRef. 15 February 2003. Retrieved 13 June 2015.

[7] "Soyuz User's Manual" (PDF). Arianespace. March 2012. Retrieved 13 June 2015.

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v t e Orbital launch systems
List of orbital launch systems Comparison of orbital launch systems
Current	Angara 1.2 A5 Ariane 6 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 Zhuque 2
In development	Antares 330 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 Nova 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 3SL 3SLB 3F 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	Ariane 6 Vega
In development	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