Ariane 5: 27 years on the job and over 100 successful launches. Ariane 5 lifted off for the final time on July 4. We’ll be looking back at some of its most significant missions.

On March 2, 2004 at 8h17, the European Rosetta probe set off from the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on an Ariane 5 launcher, for a 10-year mission to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Let’s dive deeper into this extraordinary mission.

Rosetta was the first spacecraft to orbit a comet and set down a lander on its surface.

The main aim of this European Space Agency (ESA) flagship mission was to study the activity of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko over time as it approached the Sun.

Ariane 5’s launch of Rosetta was a very special mission because, for the first time, the launcher had to achieve the escape velocity needed to break free of Earth’s gravity – nearly 40,000 km/h – so that its passenger could be propelled to the depths of the solar system.

The new 5G+ version of Ariane 5 was equipped with a modified upper stage with a delayed ignition capability, so that this unique mission could be successfully sent on its way.

After it separated from the main stage, the EPS upper stage, with Rosetta on-board, initiated an unpowered ballistic flight phase of about two hours. It then ignited its motor for 16 minutes, accelerating to 37,476 km/hour, enabling it to exit the Earth’s gravity field and enter a heliocentric orbit. About fifteen minutes later, the probe separated from the launcher stage to head off on its long journey.