Ariane 5 Milestones
2023
April

April 14, 2023 April 14, 2023

The first European mission to Jupiter

Arianespace successfully placed the European Space Agency’s JUICE space probe in an escape orbit. This is Europe’s first mission to the Jovian system. JUICE, which will arrive in July 2031, is to spend at least three years observing Jupiter’s icy moons: Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.

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2021
December

December 25, 2021 December 25, 2021

Ariane 5 orbits NASA’s Webb Space Telescope

In one of the most iconic space exploration launches ever performed by Ariane 5, the heavy-lift Arianespace launcher successfully lofts NASA’s Webb Space Telescope – sending the most powerful space observatory ever built on its way to study origins of the Universe. Ariane 5’s very precise injection places Webb on a highly accurate deep-space trajectory, conserving the telescope’s precious on-board propellent for a longer lifetime of discoveries.

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October

October 23, 2021 October 23, 2021

The GTO launch leader

Ariane 5 sets a new world record for the cumulative net mass delivered to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) using a single launch vehicle: a total performance of 11.2 metric tons and a payload mass reaching 10.264 metric tons at separation. This cumulative milestone was reached on Arianespace’s Flight VA255, which successfully lofted the SES-17 and SYRACUSE 4A satellites from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. It was the 111th Ariane 5 flight overall.

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