The two enormous boosters, thrusters attached along the main body of the rocket, tear the 770 ton monster from the ground, consuming the 240 tons of powder each contains in just two minutes.

At the same time, the powerful Vulcain 2 engine swallows in eight minutes 225 tons of liquid oxygen and hydrogen necessary to pull Ariane 5 out of Earth's gravity.

And then allow the upper stage of the rocket to drop the two satellites into their transfer orbit, from where they will position themselves 36,000 kilometers from Earth.

The weight of the two machines, Malaysian and Indian, is around 10 tons.

Preparation for flight VA257 -- for the 257th flight of an Ariane rocket -- began almost two years ago with the arrival of the first raw sheets at the Arianegroup factory in Les Mureaux, near Paris, to shape the rocket's main stage tanks.

Once manufactured, the various elements of the launcher were transported to Kourou where the 29-day launch campaign begins: assembly of the various elements, filling of the satellite tanks before their installation under the fairing of the launcher.

In addition to the interruption of the firing of Russian Soyuz rockets from Guyana, which reduces the activity of the space center, the war in Ukraine has upset the plans: the satellites could not be conveyed by the Ukrainian very large aircraft Antonov as is usually the case.

The Malaysian satellite "Measat-3d arrived by boat, (the Indian) Gsat-24 by an Indian Air Force C-17 transport plane", relates Bruno Gérard, director of Arianespace and Arianegroup in Kourou.

On the eve of launch, the rocket is still in its final assembly building (BAF), resting on its launch table.

Begins one of the final pre-launch operations: the transfer of the rocket to the launch pad located a few kilometers away on a railway track at the 4km/h senator's train.

All that remains is to fill the tanks.

"We never fill liquid oxygen and hydrogen at the BAF, it's too dangerous", explains Bruno Gérard.

"Twinge"

Three kilometers from the launch pad, in the bunker of a first control center, the "launcher cockpit", around fifty engineers and operators, each behind his desk, ensure the good health of the rocket and its no shooting.

“We wake up the launcher to do the final checks,” explains Bruno Erin, mission leader for Arianespace.

In the Jupiter control room, the "control tower" of the launch, all the flight parameters are scrutinized, from radars and telemetry to monitor the rocket in flight, to the weather forecast or even the "means of backup" to ensure the "neutralization" of the launcher in the event of a problem.

"We do not press a button to take off. As long as there is no negative parameter, we do not stop the launch", summarizes Raymond Boyce, director of operations for the National Center for Space Studies ( Cnes), which manages the space center.

After this 113th launch of Ariane 5, a rocket which began its career in 1996, only four flights remain, two this year and two in 2023.

One of which is emblematic: the European Space Agency's (ESA) Juice mission to the icy moons of Jupiter.

Not enough to feed excessive nostalgia for as much.

"There will be a bit of sadness, there will be Ariane 5 veterans as there were Ariane 4 veterans," said Daniel de Chambure, head of the ESA office in Kourou.

Bruno Gérard just expects a "little twinge in the heart".

"But whatever the launcher, it's always the same job and there is Ariane 6 coming up," tempers this veteran, whose first flight was the "VA19", an Ariane 3 in 1987.

The first flight of Ariane 6, more flexible and less expensive than Ariane 5, therefore more competitive in the face of fierce competition from the American SpaceX, has been postponed to 2023.

© 2022 AFP