Rocket Launch Aborted After Main Engine Malfunction (SPACE.com)

Wednesday, March 30, 2011 5:01 PM By dwi

A European herb aborted its attempted start of digit newborn subject satellites today (March 30) cod to a important engine glitch seven seconds after the engine ignited.

The Ariane 5 herb was poised to blast soured at 5:45 p.m. EDT (2145 GMT) from a start pad at the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana, when the malfunction occurred.

As the countdown measure reached zero, the unmanned herb lighted its important liquid-fueled engine, then shut downbound on its own when it failed an automatic systems check, officials with the rocket's concern Arianespace said in a statement.

The automatic shutdown aborted the start attempt before the vehicle's match solidified herb boosters – which cannot be shut downbound once reactive – had ignited.

The 165-foot (50-meter) gangly Ariane 5 rocket's important engine's review process "was not completed successfully, preventing the boosters' kindling and thereby aborting the mission," Arianespace officials said. "The Ariane 5 and its digit payloads remain in a innocuous fashion on the start pad."

Arianespace officials plan to pull the herb backwards into a large construction antiquity to investigate the problem.

“We do not verify some risks, and thence it is very important we watch the causes,” said Arianespace Chairman and CEO Jean-Yves Le Gall in a statement.

The Ariane 5 herb uses a Vulcain 2 prototypal initiate engine assisted by digit solidified herb boosters to start equipment payloads into orbit. The Vulcain 2 engine is fueled by cryogenic liquefied hydrogen and liquefied oxygen and is fashioned to defect for about 600 seconds to boost payloads into space.

Two assorted subject satellites are crowded aboard the Ariane 5 herb awaiting a activate to orbit.

One equipment is Yahsat 1A, a craft shapely for the Al Yah Satellite Communications Co. of Abu Dhabi. Yahsat 1A is fashioned to wage direct broadcasting broadcasts and secure subject for polity and military customers for several countries, including the United Arab Emirates, according to Spaceflight Now.

The another equipment is New Dawn, a $250 million equipment shapely by the Virginia-based consort Orbital Sciences Corp., for the equipment subject provider Intelsat. [10 Private Spaceships Becoming Reality]

Both satellites are destined for geostationary orbits about 22,200 miles (35,727 kilometers) above Earth, allowing them to wage subject services patch keeping send over their respective coverage areas on the follower below.

The Ariane 5 herb can start payloads of up to 10 heaps to geostationary orbit, and pull up to 20 heaps to low-Earth itinerary a some cardinal miles above the planet.

A newborn start fellow for the Ariane 5 herb and its digit satellites module be observed pending the results of the malfunction investigation.

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