Ariane 5 likely to be phased out by the end of the decade

[Coldfinger008]

Sooooo is anyone here guilty of this picture?

If not, is the one on the right realistic in any way? XD

I wouldn´t even launch that in KSP.....

[Elthy]

Those pictures are based on the old Ariane 6 design that used all SRBs except for the upper stage... Also i wouldnt dare to launch that i KSP, too.

Someone should ask ESA if they can bring the models from the video in a KSP mod, the upper stage engine looks realy good.

[shynung]

If not, is the one on the right realistic in any way? XD

I wouldn´t even launch that in KSP.....

I'm willing to bet the designer of this one has taken a long look at Whackjob's stuff and decided that he liked it.

[sgt_flyer]

First stage coming from Vega, second stage coming from Ariane 5, third stage coming from Ariane 5 (see this page in French published yesterday: http://www.cnes.fr/web/CNES-fr/11283-ariane-6.php ). It's an extremely conservative design, but it's possibly the best way to reduce the costs, and it uses the technology that was planned from the Ariane 5 Evolution (that is scrapped, or called Ariane 6 ).

I personally extremely happy that the EU finally stated the future of Ariane

Well, regarding the 2nd stage (EPC), they still change various things about how the fuel tanks will be built (ariane V used a common bulkhead design, Ariane 6 EPC will not use a common bulkhead anymore - worse dry mass, but more economic to build)

For the 3rd stage, the expander cycle vinci engine has yet to fly once. (The ariane 5 ECA Cryotechnic upper stage use a gas generator cycle) that's quite an evolution for EU, because they never used this kind of cycles in their engines.

Also, the original vinci engine project would have used an extendable nozzle in order to shorten the interstage - they decided to directly use a fixed long nozzle again to make the engine more economic to produce - at the expanse of the added weight of the longer interstage. At least, the vinci engine will be restartable. (In contrast with the current ESC-A which is not restartable)

In the end, it's really a whole new rocket

(Though the Ariane 5 midlife evolution would have changed quite a lot too - the vinci based upperstage, + upgraded SRBs (the vega serves as a test bed for the technology needed for those SRB upgrades - the carbon composite SRB casing used in the P80 + it's nozzle simplifications, they wanted to make a multisegment version of it to replace ariane V EAPs))

Still, i'm eager to see how will perform those carbon composite casings (at least, EU takes no risks in wanting to use only single segment P120s for ariane 6, both economically and security wise:))

Guess we'll have to wait for ATK dark knights to see huge multisegment SRBs with composite casings

[LordFerret]

Ariane is a european rocket launched solely from Kourou in french guiana, the explosion in Wallops was of an american Antares rocket.

Oops! I stand corrected. Thanks.