Skip to main content

Watch Europe’s workhorse Ariane 5 rocket launch for the final time

After 27 years of outstanding service, Europe’s heavy-lift Ariane 5 rocket launched for the final time on Wednesday.

The workhorse rocket operated by Arianespace performed as reliably as ever as it blasted off from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana at 6 p.m. ET on its 117th flight. You can watch the moment when it lifts off in the video below:

Flight VA261 | Heinrich-Hertz-Satellit & SYRACUSE 4B | Ariane 5 | Arianespace

Ariane 5’s final mission was a routine affair, deploying a French military communications satellite and a German communications satellite. Recent flights, however, saw it deploy the much-celebrated James Webb Space Telescope, which is sending scientists fresh data from deep space, and the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) spacecraft, which is on its way to explore Jupiter and its three largest icy moons.

Recommended Videos

“This 117th and last Ariane 5 mission is emblematic in several respects,” Stéphane Israël, CEO of Arianespace, said in a release. “Ariane 5 has just deployed two telecommunications satellites, Syracuse 4B and Heinrich-Hertz-Satellit, for France and Germany, the first two contributors to the Ariane program, [and] this mission is also emblematic of Ariane 5’s ability to perform dual launches, which constitutes the very core of its success, with 197 satellites placed in geostationary orbit out of a total of 239 satellites deployed. Over its career, Ariane 5 has served 65 institutional and commercial customers from 30 countries.”

Please enable Javascript to view this content

The 164-foot-tall (50-meter) Ariane 5 rocket looks similar to SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy and United Launch Alliance’s Delta IV, with a core booster and two side boosters giving it extra power for more complex deployments involving heavier payloads. A couple of minutes after launch, the two side boosters separate from the core stage, which carries on burning as it lifts the payload to orbit.

In its lifetime, the rocket suffered only two complete failures — one on its maiden flight in 1996 and another in 2002.

Ariane 5’s retirement means that Europe currently has no heavy-lift rocket available. With few options until it deploys the Ariane 6, Europe has to look elsewhere for launch assistance. Just last week, for example, it used SpaceX’s reliable Falcon 9 rocket in a launch from U.S. soil to deploy its Euclid satellite for a mission involving the exploration of dark matter.

Ariane 6 is currently undergoing tests ahead of its maiden flight. It was supposed to launch for the first time in 2020, but delays mean that it won’t get off the ground until later this year at the earliest.

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
January features two major rocket launches to look out for
The Super Heavy booster's Raptor engines powering the Starship's launch on November 19, 2024.

Last year was a busy one for space missions, and 2025 looks set to be no different.

The continued development of new rockets will feature heavily over the next 12 months. Heading into the new year, SpaceX, for example, is aiming to really ramp up the launch rate of its next-generation Starship rocket.

Read more
Watch NASA’s SLS rocket take one small step toward the Artemis II moon mission
The core stage of NASA's SLS rocket.

Artemis II Core Stage Moves to High Bay 2

Although it won’t be blasting off until mid-2026 at the earliest, preparations are already well underway for the launch of NASA’s highly anticipated Artemis II mission.

Read more
Watch Europe’s Vega-C rocket return to flight after two years
Artist's impression of Copernicus Sentinel-1C in its Vega-C launcher

A European Vega-C rocket will launch tomorrow carrying the Sentinel-1C mission into orbit in the rocket's first return to flight since it failed in 2022. The European Space Agency (ESA) is launching this Earth-monitoring satellite from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, and you can watch along as the event is live-streamed.

The launch is scheduled for 4:20 p.m. ET/1:20 p.m. PT on Wednesday, December 4, with coverage beginning at 4 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT. You can watch on ESA's Web TV using the video embedded below:

Read more