On this day in 1984, the first Ariane 3 flight…
Two more great pics of this day’s launch on 4 August 1984, when an Ariane 3 lifted off for the first time. This was the 10th flight (V10) of a launch vehicle in the Ariane family. It placed into orbit two telecommunications satellites, telecom 1A and ESA’s ECS-2 (renamed in orbit by Eutelsat SA and Eutelsat-1 F2). So began the commercial career of this European launch vehicle, as well as that of Arianespace (ArianeGroup), which from flight V9 on, took total responsibility for Ariane launches. Ariane 3 made a record 11 flights from 1984 to 1989, all of which were successful.
