Ariane 5

Heavy launch vehicle

Ariane 5 is a European heavy-lift launch vehicle that is part of the Ariane rocket family, an expendable launch system designed by the Centre national d'études spatiales (CNES). It is used to deliver payloads into geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) or low Earth orbit (LEO).

The Ariane project was instrumental in helping to overcome the European space crisis,[clarification needed] partly because Germans and French worked more closely together to develop the Ariane.[4][5]

Ariane 5 rockets are manufactured under the authority of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the French spatial agency Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales. Airbus Defence and Space is the prime contractor for the vehicles, leading a consortium of other European contractors.