Arianespace launch thread

[XB-70A]

T-48 minutes before the broadcast channels testing (goodbye headphones)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=II9ULNvuD60

 

[tater]

Finally live

(no embedding)

Now back to test bars. what.

 

 

 

French works.

[Reactordrone]

Just about live.

 

[XB-70A]

I know it's a dream, but could you imagine if tonight Arianespace was sharing a sight from a camera on board Vega? Finally.

[XB-70A]

LOL, D.D.O. just said "le pilotage est calme" (the control is calm). Looks like he was nominally nominal.

[tater]

 

Launch is pretty soon (3:37 pm EST).

In French (sometimes a better feed):

 

[Canopus]

Stream started

[Ultimate Steve]

And if you're at school like me, Arianespace streams their launches on a different platform on their site!

http://www.arianespace.com/mission/ariane-flight-va246/

Finally, a launch I can watch!

[Canopus]

3 minutes ago, Ultimate Steve said:

And if you're at school like me, Arianespace streams their launches on a different platform on their site!

http://www.arianespace.com/mission/ariane-flight-va246/

Finally, a launch I can watch!

I always watch from there as to avoid the Youtube Chat

[tater]

Already bored. I can do animations in KSP, and at least I can rotate the view.

[RedKraken]

SSO-A yesterday. Ariane today. CRS-16 at the cape tomorrow, then Chang'e 4 at xichang , then NROL-71 at vandy.

Launch fever.

[MinimumSky5]

4 minutes ago, RedKraken said:

SSO-A yesterday. Ariane today. CRS-16 at the cape tomorrow, then Chang'e 4 at xichang , then NROL-71 at vandy.

Launch fever.

I cannot wait for the day that this launch rate becomes normal!

[XB-70A]

Nice views of the work around the 4th pad (Essemble de Lancement Ariane 4):

 

Also, I'm a bit curious about the Assembly Building.  Will Ariane 6 be assembled horizontally (?!) at first before being transferred vertically to the mobile gantry, or is it a building dedicated to support the current ELA4 assembly?

[tater]

 

[RedKraken]

http://www.arianespace.com/mission/ariane-flight-vs20/

T - 4 min

[RedKraken]

T+10:30 fregate burning now. All nominal.

[RedKraken]

Mission complete.

 

[tater]

Arianespace is cutting the price of Ariane 5 to match Ariane 6 in a bid to attract more customers.

Is Ariane 6 cheap enough to compete (when it exists)?

[MinimumSky5]

It looks like it might be. Falcon 9 had its launch price reduced to 50 million recently, for 13 tons to LEO (for droneship recovery). Ariane 6 goes for 90 million, for 21 tons. 

[tater]

So dual manifest to GTO. That's competitive.

[Reactordrone]

First Ariane 5 for 2019 scheduled for launch Feb.5 21.00-22.00 UTC.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMGEinBfBhs

 

[tater]

 

[tater]

 

[tater]

Coverage live

 

[Reactordrone]

Cloudy today.