Launch of the Ariane 5 rocket in Europe for its 100th mission in space

This afternoon, Europe will launch its 100th Ariane 5 rocket, a historic achievement for the design of almost 20 years old vehicles. Launched from the South American spaceport in French Guiana, Ariane 5 will put a pair of communications satellites in high orbit above the Earth. And if all goes well, it will be the 300th global flight of the family of three Arianespace vehicles, the launch provider overseen by the European Space Agency.

Introduced for the first time in 1996, Ariane 5 was Arianespace's first heavy vehicle to launch many large communications satellites as well as space observatories and commercial vehicles to the International Space Station. The rocket is also responsible for launching the Rosetta mission in Europe, which sent a spacecraft to a comet and deployed a lander on the surface of the object.

In its early years, Ariane 5 suffered from a handful of breakdowns, but from 2003 to 2017, the vehicle experienced consecutive launches at 100%. However, this series ended in January after a partial vehicle failure in flight; the rocket accidentally left the course because of incorrect numbers that were entered into the vehicle guidance system prior to take-off. However, Ariane 5 was still able to deploy the two satellites it was carrying at the time – just in a lower orbit than expected.

Ariane 5 has some important upcoming missions, including the launch of NASA's next James Webb Space Telescope around 2021. But the rocket is getting closer to retirement. Arianespace is developing the successor of the vehicle, Ariane 6, whose company hopes to start operating as early as 2020. It is expected that Ariane 6 will eventually replace Ariane 5, the latter being progressively removed from here the end of the year 2022., according to Ars Technica.

For today's flight, Ariane 5 will launch two satellites on a trajectory 22,000 miles above the Earth. One of these probes is Horizons 3e, which will be operated by two partner companies, Intelsat and SKY Perfect JSAT. Horizons 3e is intended to provide broadband services in areas of the Asia-Pacific region. Meanwhile, another satellite called Azerspace-2 / Intelsat 38 will also be put into service. Operated by Intelsat and Azercosmos, this probe will provide direct contact services in Europe, Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

Today's flight launch window will open at 17:53 and continue until 18:38 ET. The full flight, from take-off to the last deployment of the satellite, should take approximately 42 minutes. Arianespace will broadcast the mission live, with coverage of approximately 20 minutes before takeoff; check to watch the flight live.