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News

[25.12.2019]

Europe marks 40th anniversary of first Ariane rocket launch

daily-sun

The first Ariane space rocket lifted off over the forests of French Guiana 40 years ago, enabling Europe to at last take its place as an independent player in the international race for space.

Following a number of delays and technical setbacks, Ariane 1 finally left the launch pad in Kourou at 2:13 pm local time on December 24, 1979.

Its maiden flight was a so-called qualification flight, meaning it was not carrying any satellite to put into orbit.

But at the launch, and “during the successive ignitions and separations of different parts of the rocket, there were cries of joy from spectators as the Ariane rose in the clear sky above Guiana,” AFP’s special correspondent wrote at the time.

The control room erupted with applause when the then head of France’s CNES National Centre for Space Studies, Yves Sillard, declared the mission a success, “without even waiting for the orbiting diagnosis,” the AFP article stated.

“It was a complete success. It triggered inexpressible joy,” Sillard said in an interview with AFP four decades after.

“There was laughter and tears,” recalled the launch centre’s former head of operations, Guy Dubau, visibly moved even 40 years on.

www.daily-sun.com

http://www.science.gov.az/news/open/11816