This Week In Launches: Ariane 5 says farwell

This week we have a few launches out of the Americas, one that is bittersweet, then two that will feel normal to all of us. The bittersweet one will of course be the Ariane 5’s final flight before retirement.

This Week’s Launches

• July 4
  • Arianespace Ariane 5 Syracuse 4B & Heinrich Hertz, 5:30 P.M. ET (Final Launch!)
    • ELA-3, Guiana Space Centre, French Guiana, France
• July 7
  • SpaceX Falcon 9 Starlink Group 5-13, 3:30 P.M. ET
    • SLC-4E, Vandenberg SFB, California
• July 9
  • SpaceX Falcon 9 Starlink Group 6-5, 3:15 A.M. ET
    • SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida

Ariane 5 headed into retirement

After the replacement of three pyrotechnic lines on the rocket, Ariane 5 is now ready to go to compete its career as Europe’s heavy-lift launcher. Arianespace announced last week that the company will attempt the finale on July 4, very patriotic of them to give us Americans a show on Independence Day.

The two communication satellites, Heinrich-Herz-Satellit out of Germany and SYRACUSE 4B from France, will be lofted into a geostationary orbit. The adapter used by Arianespace is fairly unique to the Ariane 5 and allows two pretty much full-size satellites to share a ride to space.

The Ariane 5 rocket has been serving the European market since 2003 and has yet to experience a catastrophic failure in its career, a feat few rockets can boast. ESA has entrusted the Ariane 5 to launch some of the most important missions for the space agency, including NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope back in 2021. Eventually, the Ariane 6 will take over as the heavy launcher of Europe but it has ran into several development delays., forcing Europe to rely on US-made rockets like SpaceX’s Falcon 9.

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Two Starlink missions slated for the weekend

Speaking of the Falcon 9, SpaceX is slated to launch two Starlink missions from both coasts this week. First from California where SpaceX will launch Group 5-13 and then from SLC-40 with Group 6-5. Fun fact, SLC-40 has been used to launch half of SpaceX missions so far this year.

Not much else to share on the SpaceX front, we know the deal with these missions.