From: Amara Graps (agraps@amara.com)
Date: Thu Jan 02 2003 - 09:16:11 MST
I hear that the launch will likely go ahead, but not on a 'boosted'
Ariane 5, but on the previous version of Ariane 5. The next article
says roughly the same thing.
Amara
http://www.spacetoday.net/Summary/1387
Ariane 5 investigation delays Rosetta launch
Posted: Mon, Dec 30 2:00 PM ET (1900 GMT)
Arianespace announced Monday that it has delayed the launch of ESA's
Rosetta comet mission for at least a few days while an investigation
into a launch failure last month continues. The company said in a
statement that while the investigation continues "irreversible
operations" related to the launch have been suspended, forcing a delay
from the planned January 12 launch of at least several days. Arianespace
said a final decision on the launch will be made by January 11, five
days after a final report on the December 11 failure of the Ariane 5
ESC-A booster is scheduled to be completed. Rosetta must launch during a
narrow window that opens on January 12 and closes by the end of the
month; if the launch is delayed beyond the end of January the spacecraft
would not be able to reach its target, comet Wirtanen. If the inquiry
board finds that the launch failure is linked to the ESC-A version,
Rosetta will likely be cleared for launch as it will fly on an older
baseline Ariane 5.
Amara Graps
(Cupertino)i
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