← All launches
Launch SuccessfulArianespace

Ariane 40: Helios 1B

The Helios program is Europe's military optical reconnaissance system consisting of both a space and a ground segment, which commenced service in 1995, jointly funded by the French, Italian and Spanish governments. The Helios I optical observation satellites, launched in July 1995 and December 1999 respectively, can acquire high resolution images of any point on the globe, with daily revisit capability. Helios-1B had suffered a breakdown of its power supply system in October 2004 and could no longer perform any work after operating for just under its 5-year nominal life expectancy.

Friday, 3 December 1999
Ariane 40: Helios 1B

Mission Data

Arianespace
🇪🇺ArianespaceEst. 1980
Launch VehicleAriane 40
Vehicle FamilyAriane
Vehicle Record7 of 7 launches (100%)
Provider TypeCommercial
Agency Record313 successes / 15 failures (95%)
Success Streak16 consecutive
Mission TypeEarth Science
Target OrbitPolar Orbit
Launch PadAriane Launch Area 2
LocationGuiana Space Centre, French Guiana GUF
Orbital Launches This Year#68
Agency Launches This Year#8
Launches From This Pad119
Launches From This Site336
Status Note

The launch vehicle successfully inserted its payload(s) into the target orbit(s).

About Ariane 40

The Ariane 4 was an expendable space launch system, developed by the Centre national d'études spatiales (CNES), the French space agency, for the European Space Agency (ESA). It was manufactured by ArianeGroup and marketed by Arianespace. Since its first flight on 15 June 1988 until the final flight on 15 February 2003, it attained 113 successful launches out of 116 total launches.

Launch Site

Ariane Launch Area 2 · 5.2320°N 52.7782°W

Launch data from Launch Library 2 by The Space Devs.