Explosion of the Ariane 5 (1996) - Causes and Outcomes

Running Head: EXPLOSION OF THE ARIANE 5 (1996)
EXPLOSION OF THE ARIANE 5 (1996)
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

1EXPLOSION OF THE ARIANE 5 (1996)
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Discussion........................................................................................................................................2
Purpose of the assignment...........................................................................................................2
Article summary..........................................................................................................................2
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................5
References........................................................................................................................................6

2EXPLOSION OF THE ARIANE 5 (1996)
Introduction
On 4th of June in 1996, a maiden flight named Ariane 5 launcher had met a serious
accident after only 40 seconds of its take off. It exploded at the height of 3700m. The rocket
went out of its desired way and unexpectedly exploded. The engineers involved in the Ariane
project immediately verified the problem that had occurred the failure. Within few days, ESA’s
director general along with the chairperson of CNES had setup an Inquiry Board (Schelestow,
Troncoso & Torres, 2017). Various members were nominated such as chairperson, vice
chairperson and some more professionals who were involved in the project. This report discusses
the main purpose of the report. It further discusses regarding the summary of the article chosen
and the issues that caused the explosion and the outcomes.
Discussion
Purpose of the assignment
The article chosen for proceeding with this assignment is “Failure of flight feathers under
uniaxial compression” (Schelestow, Troncoso & Torres, 2017). This assignment aims in
discussing the problems occurred in the rocket, which lead to the explosion. Some weaknesses
that were involved in the system will also be discussed in this report. It would further discuss
regarding the findings after the failure.
Article summary
The rocket was launched from a launch site at Kourou. The weather in the morning at the
site was quite pleasant for the launch. The weather did not create any problem while the launcher
was transferred to the launch pad. The strength of electric field was found to be negligible and