484 



198 Walter A. McDougall 



financial commitments, and budgets have remained at a level less than 

 one-tenth that of NASA (see table 1). But ESA's first decade must be 

 judged a success. On Christmas Eve 1979, twenty-two years after 

 Sputnik and seventeen years since the birth of ELDO, the Ariane placed 

 a European satellite in orbit from Kourou. Since then the Ariane has 

 had a mixed record but is the first nonsuperpower booster declared 

 operational for competitive conmierce. The French (with a 59.25 per- 

 cent interest) prompdy incorporated a "private" company, Ariane- 

 space, and won contracts to launch comsats for INTELSAT, Arab and 

 South American states, Australia, European Space Agency (of course), 

 and even some U.S. firms. 



In the meantime, the United States spent twelve times the cost of 

 Ariane to develop the Space Shuttle. How is it that the American 

 monopoly in space transportation was broken by a rocket that merely 

 duplicated a capability (equivalent to the Thor Delta) the United States 

 had had for two decades? According to the "methode assez frangaise," 

 French engineers designed Ariane for one purpose: provide Europe 

 with a sturdy, reliable heavy booster capable of launching satellites for 

 the world market at a price competitive with that of American systems. 

 What French officials foresaw as early as 1972 was that "outmoded" 

 technology could still be commercially viable. 1 he first two stages of 

 Ariane, derived from the French Viking engine, are fueled by UDMH 

 and nitrogen tetraoxide. This combination is not as powerful as LH2 

 and LOX but need not be refrigerated to -250°C. The third is a 

 high-energy stage sufficient to boost a 3,850-pound payload into trans- 



1 ABLt I 

 C.i.oBAL Space Budgets 1982 



