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The currently cited price of the Ariane 6 is €75 million($80 million) for the two SRB version and €115 million($125 million) for the four SRB version. But this is 2 and 3 times higher than the price of the Falcon 9 used at $40 million. If ArianeSpace proceeds to offer the Ariane 6 at those prices then like ULA they will be driven to the brink of bankruptcy. It is important to note the high price of the Ariane 6 is coming solely from the high price of the solid side boosters. Note the €40 million added to the price for the two added SRBs of the four SRB version compared to the price of the two SRB version suggests a price for two SRB’s as €40 million. But this would mean the entire rest of the rocket aside from the SRB’s would be €35 million. The two SRB’s on the two SRB version would cost more than the price for the entire rest of the rocket. This gives us a clue for what is going so terribly wrong with the pricing of the Ariane 6. Usually, with solid side boosters their size in mass is ~1/10th the size of the core stage. But with the Ariane 6 the side boosters are the size of the core stage itself. Imagine how high would be the price of the Delta IV and Atlas 5 if those familiar side boosters they often use were each 10 times their current size. So based on that I wanted to see what could be done if we eliminated the SRB’s and just added 1 or 2 additional Vulcains to the core for sufficient thrust for take-off. So that’s the challenge: What would be the payload to LEO if the Ariane 5 core had 1 or 2 additional Vulcains added to the core and no SRB’s? I stated the Ariane 5 core because its propellant mass and dry mass are known, while the numbers for the Ariane 6 core are up in the air. Note with only 2 Vulcains on the core and no SRB’s you could only use a small second stage for it to be able to lift off. I recommend the Ariane 4 H10 hydrolox upper stage at ~10 ton propellant load. With 3 Vulcains on the core though you would have sufficient take-off thrust for a larger upper stage; it could be 30, 40, or even 50 tons propellant load. Robert Clark

The SLS was planned to have a large upper stage called the Exploration Upper Stage(EUS). This would take the SLS Block 1 to the SLS Block 2, needed for a single flight lunar architecture. However, the multi-billion dollar cost for development of a large upper stage from scratch means it’s unlikely to be funded. NASA is proposing a solution using the Starship making separate flights. But this plan takes 6 flights total or likely more of the Superheavy/Starship for the Starship to fly to the Moon to act as a lander. One look at this plan makes it apparent it’s unworkable: Actually, it’s likely to be more complex than portrayed in the figure, needing 8 to 16 refueling flights. This is what SpaceX submitted to NASA in proposing the plan, requiring 6 months to complete the Starship refueling: SpaceX CEO Elon Musk details orbital refueling plans for Starship Moon lander. By Eric Ralph Posted on August 12, 2021 First, SpaceX will launch a custom variant of Starship that was redacted in the GAO decision document but confirmed by NASA to be a propellant storage (or depot) ship last year. Second, after the depot Starship is in a stable orbit, SpaceX’s NASA HLS proposal reportedly states that the company would begin a series of 14 tanker launches spread over almost six months – each of which would dock with the depot and gradually fill its tanks. … In response to GAO revealing that SpaceX proposed as many as 16 launches – including 14 refuelings – spaced ~12 days apart for every Starship Moon lander mission, Musk says that a need for “16 flights is extremely unlikely.” Instead, assuming each Starship tanker is able to deliver a full 150 tons of payload (propellant) into orbit after a few years of design maturation, Musk believes that it’s unlikely to take more than eight tanker launches to refuel the depot ship – or a total of ten launches including the depot and lander. https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-elon-musk-starship-orbital-refueling-details/ Everyone, remember the Apollo missions where we could get to the Moon in a single flight? In fact, this would be doable with the SLS given a large upper stage. Then the suggestion is for the ESA to provide a Ariane 5 or 6 as the upper stage for the SLS. It would save on costs to NASA by ESA paying for the modifications needed for the Ariane core. As it is now ESA is involved in a small role in the Artemis lunar program by providing the service module to the Orion capsule. But it would now be playing a major role by providing the key upper stage for the SLS. The argument might be made that the height of the Ariane 5/6 is beyond the limitations set forth by NASA for the EUS. However, if you look at the ca. 30 m height of Ariane 5 core compared to the 14 m height of the interim cryogenic upper stage now on the SLS, this would put the total vehicle height only a couple of meters beyond the height that had already been planned for the SLS Block 2 anyway: See discussion here: Budget Moon Flights: Ariane 5 as SLS upper stage, page 2. https://exoscientist.blogspot.com/2013/09/budget-moon-flights-ariane-5-as-sls.html Coming up: ESA also could provide a low cost lander for the Artemis program. Robert Clark

Ariane 5 is ESA's most iconic heavy-lift rocket and soon all Kerbonauts will be able to recreate it in the upcoming 1.10 Update!

ESA can get a low cost, reusable version of the Ariane 6 just by adding a second Vulcain to the Ariane 5. Moveover, without needing the solid side boosters, this can be used to finally give Europe an independent manned spaceflight capability. Multi-Vulcain Ariane 6. https://exoscientist.blogspot.com/2018/02/multi-vulcain-ariane-6.html Bob Clark

An Ariane 5 rocket is launching soon and will be carrying a condosat for imarsat and hellas-sat with the Indian GSAT 17 https://spaceflightnow.com/2017/06/28/va-238-mission-status-center/

Hi guys, I have decided to collect the Ariane 5 and ATV to RSS I made did not bad, but some configs I changed accelerators, for example, the original 20 %, give less thrust than the P80. Download craft https://kerbalx.com/MoNsTroo/ATV---Arian-5 I will add assembly of mods later for now you can estimate screenshots(4K) from my assembly of mods http://imgur.com/a/Qhsdj Craft and the list of mods will appear tomorrow