The Complete Book of Spaceflight: From Apollo 1 to Zero Gravity

principally to the second stage, will double Ariane 5’s
GTO payload capacity to about 12 tons by 2006.
ARIANE 5 FACTS
Height: up to 52 m
Core diameter: 5.4 m
Liftoff mass: 710 tons
Maximum payload
LEO: 16 tons
GTO: 6.2 tons
Arianespace 37
Ariane An Ariane 5 takes off
from Guiana Space Centre. European
Space Agency
Arianespace
A private company incorporated in 1980 with headquarters
in Paris to produce, market, and launch Ariane
launch vehicles and to operate and maintain the Guiana
Space Centre. Among the shareholders of Arianespace
are 36 leading European space and electronics corporations,
13 major banks, and the French space agency,
CNES. Twelve countries are represented in Arianespace:
Belgium, Denmark, Germany, France, Ireland, Italy, the
Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and
the United Kingdom.