A good half hour after launch on Friday, 14 April 2023, the JUICE spacecraft successfully separates from the Ariane 5 upper stage - the eight-year journey to Jupiter has begun.
Image: 1/8, Credit:
ESA, Arianespace
Ariane 5 ECA on the launchpad
Ready for launch - the JUICE spacecraft atop the Ariane 5 launcher at the European launch site Kourou in French Guiana.
Image: 2/8, Credit:
ESA – S. Corvaja
Vulcain 2
In May 2004 the Ariane 5 ECA Vulcain 2 engine underwent tests at DLR's test facilities at Lampoldshausen in Germany.
The JUICE space mission was launched on 14 April 2023 on board an Ariane 5 ECA launcher. The Ariane 5 was a heavy-lift rocket for European spaceflight. It was developed on behalf of the European Space Agency (ESA) and was in use since 1996. The Ariane 5 ECA could carry payloads of almost 16 tonnes into Earth orbit or nearly 11 tonnes out of Earth orbit to destinations in the Solar System. A new era in European spaceflight began in July 2024 with the first launch of its successor, Ariane 6.
With its payload container at the tip, the 'fairing', the Ariane 5 launcher was 53 metres tall and had a diameter of 5.4 metres. One or two satellites could be transported into geostationary orbit in the rocket's nose cone, or three if the satellites are small. Two boosters were attached to the side of the rocket body to increase launch performance. The launch mass of the Ariane 5 ECA was 777 tonnes.
In the Vulcain engine of the first stage and the HM-7B engine of the second stage, cryogenic hydrogen and oxygen, cooled down to very low temperatures, were burnt in a process called 'oxyhydrogen reaction'. The suffix 'ECA' expresses the further development of the engine compared to previous versions: 'Evolution Cryotechnique Type A'. The first stage consumed 173 tonnes of fuel during its nine-minute burn time, the second stage another 14.6 tonnes for another burn time of almost 16 minutes. The first-stage Vulcain-2 engine developed a thrust of 1,390 kilonewtons in vacuum, the HM-7B engine 67 kilonewtons in vacuum.
A solid propellant consisting of polybutadiene, aluminium powder and ammonium perchlorate was used in the two boosters, which were about 30 metres tall and had a diameter of three metres each. The thrust profile of the two boosters changed as the burning time increases, rising from an initial 4400 kilonewtons to 6650 kilonewtons. The boosters burned out after 130 seconds, separated and fell into the Atlantic Ocean, where they were recovered and recycled.
The various components of the Ariane 5 launchers were built in Europe by different manufacturers, taken to the European Spaceport in French Guiana Guyanais (Centre Spatial Guyanais; CSG), where they were integrated. The European Spaceport in Kourou is operated by the French space agency CNES. Ariane and Vega rockets have been launched from here since 1979, and Soyuz launch vehicles have sometimes also taken off from there. Kourou is located just 580 kilometres from the equator so almost the maximum amount of the Earth's rotation of 1666 kilometres per hour can be used there as "launch bonus" when taking off in an easterly direction.
117 launches have taken place with Ariane 5 since 1979, and the transport of the JUICE mission was the penultimate launch. The Ariane 6 launch is its successor. The launch of the JUICE mission was the 23rd launch of an Ariane 5 ECA. In all versions flown, Ariane 5 had an overall reliability of 98.5 percent. The multinational company Arianespace, based in Évry near Paris, is responsible for building and operating the Ariane launchers.
