Ariane 5 took off from the Guiana Space Centre (CSG) in Kourou, the third time being the right one after two postponements: on June 16 for a technical reason, then on July 4 because of the weather.

The French military communications satellite (Syracuse 4B) and the German experimental satellite separated from the launcher after about thirty minutes to be placed in orbit.

The final launch of Ariane 5 took place before the eyes of hundreds of spectators gathered on site. "This launcher is quite a symbol," said Carine Leveau, director of space transport at the National Center for Space Studies (CNES). "Ariane 5 gave us a lot of emotions."

Some employees let their joy burst out after the successful take-off. Applause greeted the second separation.

The launch of the French military satellite, which joins a first Syracuse 4 satellite launched in 2021, "marks a major turning point for our armies: better performance and better resistance to interference," said on Twitter the French Minister of the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu.

"The technological leap is very important between Syracuse 3 and 4. We use a very high frequency band, which brings very high speed in French operations," explains to AFP the military engineer Blaise (the last name must remain confidential), director of the Syracuse 4 program at the Directorate General of Armaments (DGA).

The Military Programming Law (LPM) 2024-2030, on the other hand, acts the abandonment of a third satellite, Syracuse 4C.

"The emergence of the European IRIS2 project has led us to reconsider the issue of the Syracuse 4C satellite, initially planned in the program. We consider this (European) constellation to meet some of our needs as part of a cost-effectiveness analysis," says the engineer.

Ariane 5 takes off from the Guiana Space Centre (CSG) in Kourou on July 5, 2023 © jody amiet / AFP

"Syracuse 4 is very hardened, to meet the most critical military communications needs. We also need a range of capacities for necessary but less critical uses. This is what IRIS2 could provide in addition to Syracuse," he explains.

Rosetta, James Webb, Juice

It was the rocket's 117th flight, which had a rough start: it exploded just after takeoff on its maiden flight in 1996. The aircraft then suffered only one other failure, in 2002. "It took us two years to get back into the air," said Hervé Gilibert, technical director of prime contractor ArianeGroup.

The rest of the story is a series of successes.

Ariane 5 forged such a reputation for reliability that NASA entrusted it with its iconic James Webb telescope, worth ten billion dollars. The launch, a successful launch on Christmas Day in 2021, marks the apotheosis for the one that also sent the Rosetta probes to Comet Churi (2004) and Juice to Jupiter, in April 2023.

Twelve countries participated in the manufacture of this heavy launcher. With a capacity doubled compared to Ariane 4, the fifth of the name allows Europe to impose itself on the satellite market, taking advantage of a "trough" on the American side. A situation reversed since.

The shutdown of Ariane 5 is due in particular to its "too high" cost, says Toni Tolker-Nielsen, ESA's Director of Space Transport. Technically, "it is not outdated".

Its farewell flight will be followed by long months of emptiness while waiting for the future N.6 - at best at the end of 2023 - whose deployment suffers from cumulative delays.

More powerful and competitive with costs halved compared to Ariane 5, Ariane 6 was designed to withstand Elon Musk's American company SpaceX, which carries out more than one launch per week.

The European launcher Ariane 6 © / AFP

Testing for his qualification is in full swing, but the atmosphere is gloomy in Kourou. The end of Ariane 5 will lead to 190 job cuts out of 1,600, the new rocket having reduced needs in manpower and maintenance.

© 2023 AFP