With #Ariane5 the motto of #ArianceSpace (any mass, any orbit, anytime) has never been more appropriate:
- Any mass: from the lightest launch at 3’800kg of the XMM-Newton (the first orbital dildo-shaped object) to the over 20’000kg of each of the 5 ATVs shipped to the ISS.
- Any orbit: Ariane 5 launched stuff into LEO, MEO, HEO, GTO, SSO, plus for acronym-phobics there is Lagrange 2 and if for those not attracted to Earth there also were launches into heliocentric orbits towards Mercury, Jupiter's moons and a for the hyper-extravagants a comet even.
- Anytime: Ariane 5 has launched in every month of the year, even Christmas (JWST) isn't a holiday at ArianeSpace and if all goes well this will be the second launch in Ariane 5's history on my birthday (July 7th) which is pretty incredible that it happened twice (the first was V184 back in 2008)