The physical collection of Ariane press kits held by the ECSR comprises a total of 115 kits for 77 launches/flights, 28 in English, 11 in French, and 76 with a kit in both languages (i.e. 38 in English, 38 in French). The first is the kit for the Ariane L01 launch on 24 December 1979 and the most recent is the kit for the V169 (525) flight of Ariane 5 on 21 December 2005.
The press kits were initally published by ESA and CNES and then from flight V9 onwards by Arianespace.
The former set of these kits, representing the launches that took place under the responsibility of ESA, have been digitised as a special opening to celebrate the inaugural flight of Ariane 6 in July 2024. This special collection comprises the press kits in both English and French from the four test flights (L01 to L04), the first two operational flights (L5 and L6) and the promotional flights L7 and V8:
- Ariane L01 on 24 December 1979
- Ariane L02 on 23 May 1980 (launch failed)
- Ariane L03 on 19 June 1981
- Ariane L04 on 20 December 1981
- Ariane L5 on 9 September 1982 (launch failed)
- Ariane L6 on 16 June 1983
- Ariane L7 on 18/19 October 1983 (the V8 press kit lists both dates, owing to the difference between local time in Kourou and UT)
- Ariane V8 on 5 March 1984
The kits themselves follow the same general format and are divided into different chapters. Each contains a first section with detailed information or data on the launch itself (from purpose, objectives and description, to operational information and technical information on countdown and flight plan). This is then followed by second and third chapters with general information on the Ariane programme (including development, production and follow-on development) and the launch facilities at the Guiana Space Centre and the Ariane launch base. Sometimes these chapters were colour-coded although the choice of coloured paper was not consistent between kits.
The kits from L02 onwards also contain a final set of chapters with information on the APEX (Ariane Passenger Experiments) Programme or Intelsat and the satellites being carried. Some of the kits contain additional ESA news releases from the launch campaigns or other loose documents related to Ariane, which were probably inserted into the folders at the time by whoever the kits belonged to, and which have been digitised as an integral part of the relevant kit.
The kit for L01 is the smallest at 68 pages, since it contains no additional information on satellites. The other kits generally number between 95 and 110 pages (with the exception of the kits for L7 and V8, which decrease in length to around 70 pages).
To browse the collection, enter the SHIP database and search for ‘Ariane press kits’.
Once you have selected a series, SHIP’s image viewer allows you to select your preferred viewing mode for the documents in it by clicking the 'image viewer' icon on the right of the top header bar.