Rocket Launch Compilation - Ariane 5 (2014 - 2017)

Video from the channel Go To Space about Ariane 5, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 41:26. Language: English. Video type: Launch.

This is a compilation of Ariane 5 launches, mostly in the ECA version, from the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou during the period named in the title (2014-2017). The commentary names several payloads: Intelsat 29e, the pair Arabsat 6B (also called BADR-7) and GSAT-15, Intelsat 30 with ARSAT-1, four satellites of the Galileo constellation, and the ATV cargo vehicle Georges Lemaître bound for the International Space Station. Almost all the missions carry two telecommunications satellites for regional operators.

Each clip opens with the final countdown in French and continues with ignition and liftoff, narrated in English from the Jupiter control centre or from the observation terraces. The commentators repeat the launcher's basic figures: about 775 tonnes at liftoff, mostly propellant, and nearly 1,300 tonnes of initial thrust. About 90% of that thrust comes from the two solid strap-on boosters (EAP), 31 metres tall each, which burn 240 tonnes in about two minutes. After about 12 seconds of vertical ascent, the rocket turns east, over Devil's Island and the Atlantic, and breaks the sound barrier before the first minute. The roar reaches the observation points, about 15 kilometres from the pad, with a delay. Around 2 minutes 20 seconds the boosters are seen falling away, leaving the thrust to the Vulcain engine of the main stage. The trajectories are then tracked on screens, with the onboard computer issuing the separation commands.

In every clip the operations director confirms nominal propulsion and trajectory. The videos end after booster separation or when the cameras lose sight of the launcher, without reaching the orbital insertion of the payloads.