For more than 20 years, the Ariane-5 rocket for the delivery of heavy loads has been a workhorse for European space launches.
The American rocket starts on Tuesday from French Guiana for the 100th time, which will become a symbolic guide for the native manufacturer. The fact is that now the increasing pressure of competition from the company SpaceX Ilona Mask.
The spacecraft will fly out of the Caribbean launch complex, launching two communications satellites into orbit. For more than 20 years, Ariane-5 served as a workhorse for delivering large loads for European missions led by ESA. But soon the new model Ariane-6 will replace it, which is estimated to be 40% cheaper to make. This is partly due to the appearance of SpaceX on the commercial space scene with the reusable Falcon 9 rocket, a strong competitor. SpaceX is ahead of the European manufacturer Arianespace in the number of launches for two years in a row. Since its introduction in 1996, Ariane-5 has put into orbit 205 satellites, including for the GPS Galileo program in Europe.
