Arianespace has confirmed that they have lost contact with the satellite during the launch of the GOLD instrument aboard an Ariane 5 rocket.
2018 has started being a complicated year for space missions. This Thursday, January 25, was the day on which NASA would successfully launch the GOLD instrument, but an anomaly in the Ariane 5 rocket has jeopardized the launch.
The president of Arianespace, Stephane Israel, has confirmed in a statement that they have lost contact with the initiator a few seconds after the ignition of the upper stage. "Until now, our customers do not have contact with the satellite, now we need some time to know if they have been separated, and where they are exactly, to better analyze the consequences of this anomaly", adding:
"I want to present my sincere apologies to our clients, who have entrusted us once again. We know there is no launch without risk. We know that the launch is always difficult, and tonight Ariane 5 has had an anomaly, so we will take the time to know more about the location of the satellites.
Also, the company said they will give more details as soon as they have more information about the anomaly although, so far, it has not been possible to establish contact with the two commercial satellites carried aboard the rocket.
This anomaly, which may have been caused by an accident, could be a problem for future missions such as BepiColombo of the European Space Agency or the James Webb telescope, which plans its launch in 2019.
However, we must also bear in mind that Ariane 5 has carried out more than 80 successive consecutive missions until the night of this Thursday, January 25, as recalled by Mark McCaughrean, senior advisor on science and exploration at the European Space Agency, in your Twitter account.
https://twitter.com/markmccaughrean/status/956676782790463488?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fhipertextual.com%2F2018%2F01%2Fcohete-ariane-5-anomalia
- markmccaughrean
The mission of NASA, in collaboration with the commercial satellite SES-14, aims to scan the entire disk of the Earth every half hour to study the confines of the atmosphere. The mission will be able to determine the temperature and density of particles in the layers known as the thermosphere or the ionosphere.