Ariane 5 version
Ariane 5 Ariane 5ES
The storable-propellant upper-stage version, built for low Earth orbit and direct injection: it carried all five ATV freighters to the International Space Station and four Galileo satellites per flight to their operational orbit. Eight flights between 2008 and 2018, no failures.
- March 9, 2008
- First launch
- 21,000 kg
- LEO capacity
- No
- Reusable
History
An Ariane for low orbit
The Ariane 5ES (Evolution Storable) took the ECA's improved core and boosters but replaced the ESC-A cryogenic stage with the storable-propellant EPS used on the GS versions, which could reignite in flight. That capability — first demonstrated on flight V26 on 5 October 2007, after the payloads had been released — was the key to its missions. Estimated low-orbit capacity was 21,000 kg.
The ATV freighters
On 9 March 2008 the first Ariane 5ES-ATV carried the freighter Jules Verne to the International Space Station in a 260 km circular orbit inclined at 51.6°. At 19,360 kg the ATV was the heaviest payload ever launched by a European vehicle, and the mission made Kourou the world's third spaceport able to send cargo to the Station, after Baikonur and Cape Canaveral.
Galileo and retirement
In its second life the ES flew three times with four Galileo navigation satellites each, injecting them directly into their operational orbit thanks to the restartable EPS. It flew eight times between 2008 and 2018 without a failure; the last lifted off on 25 July 2018.