History
In 1973 eleven countries, called together by the European Space Agency (ESA), decided to take Europe down its own path in the space field: and so the Ariane programme was born. Six years later in 1979, Ariane 1 was launched from Kourou. Following development work on variants 1, 2 and 3, Ariane 4 was able to draw on the experience gained from these earlier variants.
The development program began in 1983 and the first successful launch was on 15 June 1988. The system became the basis for a European satellite launches with a record of 113 successful and three launch failures. Ariane 4 provided a payload increase from 1700 kg for Ariane 3 to a maximum of 4800 kg to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO). The record for Ariane 4 to GTO was 4946 kg.
The Ariane 4 Launch Team was awarded the Space Achievement Award by the Space Foundation in 2004.
Read more about this topic: Ariane 4
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