An Ariane 5 solid propellant booster was successfully test fired today as part of a program to increase the heavy-lift launcher's payload capability and reduce its production costs.
The static test firing was made with a full-sized booster on a fixed test stand at the Guiana Space Center. It lasted for 125 seconds - the normal burn time for an Ariane 5 booster during flight.
For an Ariane 5 mission, two solid boosters and a Vulcain cryogenic engine the launcher's thrust during its liftoff and initial ascent. The boosters are jettisoned after completing their burn, and Ariane 5 continues on the power of the Vulcain engine.
Today's static test was performed in the framework of the Ariane 5 Research and Technology Accompaniment (ARTA) program. ARTA was created to verify that Ariane 5's reliability and qualification levels are maintained, to validate performance improvements, and qualify modifications resulting from obsolescence or changes in technology.
ARTA is a project of the European Space Agency, which delegates the program's technical and financial management to the CNES French space agency. This effort was started in 1995, and it was extended beyond 2002 in the decisions taken at this month's European ministerial space conference in Edinburgh.
One purpose of today's static firing was to test a redesigned nozzle that will reduce the solid rocket booster's production costs. The new nozzle has been streamlined: it is composed of 13 elements instead of the 20 in the existing booster, and the hydraulic system that orients it during flight is simplified.
With its qualification after today's test, the new nozzle will be used on all Ariane 5 launchers beginning in 2004. Arianespace financed the new nozzle's development.
The test firing also was a step in qualifying an increased propellant load in the booster's upper segment, adding an extra 2.2 metric tons (equivalent to 10 percent of its mass). This increased load for the upper segment - which produces approximately 50 percent of the thrust during the first part of the booster's burn - will boost by about 200 kg. the Ariane 5's payload capacity to geostationary transfer orbit.
Arianespace plans to use the increase-load upper segment on all solid boosters in the Ariane 5's second production batch - which be launched starting next July.
The solid booster for Ariane 5 was developed by EADS Launch Vehicles, and is a complete stage incorporating a three-segment 240-ton solid propellant rocket motor provided by Europropulsion. Total mass of the booster is 275 metric tons.
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Upgraded Ariane 5 Solid Propellant Booster Test Fired
