spacetoday.net: Ariane launches Rosetta

Posted: Tue, Mar 2, 2004, 10:44 AM ET (1544 GMT)
Ariane 5 launch of Rosetta (Arianespace)

After several days of weather and technical delays, an Ariane 5 booster successfully launched ESA's Rosetta comet mission early Tuesday. The Ariane 5 lifted off at 2:17 am EST (0717 GMT) from the spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. After the booster placed the spacecraft and upper stage into a temporary "hyberbolic liberation" orbit, the upper stage fired again after a 106-minute coast phase to place Rosetta on the proper trajectory. The launch was scheduled for last Thursday, Feburary 26, but was delayed a day because of gusty upper-level winds; the launch was then postponed several days to repair insulation on the booster that fell off after the initial scrubbed launch attempt. Rosetta will spend 10 years on a complex trajectory through the solar system before arriving at the comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko in mid-2014.