French-Led Space Consortium Plans February Launch

Arianespace today said it plans to resume launching its Ariane rockets in February, 1987, eight months after the failure of a third-stage rocket grounded Europe’s satellite-delivery service.

Last May 31, an Ariane rocket’s third stage failed to fire, sending the rocket and its cargo--a $55-million telecommunications satellite--out of control over the Atlantic minutes after takeoff. Mission Control destroyed the rocket.

The mission’s failure grounded the chief competitor to the U.S. space shuttle and left the Western World without a reliable system for launching commercial satellites.

Arianespace, the French-led international consortium that builds, markets and launches the Ariane from the French space center at Kourou, French Guiana, today published a new scheduled of launchings for the next three years.

It said the next launch is scheduled for February, 1987. The statement said seven flights of the unmanned rocket are scheduled for 1987, eight in 1988 and nine in 1989.