Dec 13 1977
From The Space Library
ESA announced that the Societe Europeenne de Propulsion (SEP) had successfully conducted the first test of the complete first stage of its Ariane launcher at the Vernon test center north of Paris. The stage was in its flight configuration for this test, and consisted of the propulsion bay (containing 4 Viking II engines), the flight-standard tanks, the forward skirt, and the intertank skirt. The stage functioned during the test for 111sec. The purpose of the test was to verify first-stage behavior, especially with regard to the hot-gas pressurization system; thermal environment of the engine bay, tanks, and skirts; and the dynamic aspect.
This test was a follow-up to previous tests of the propulsion bay that had accumulated 404.5sec of ;successful operation, making it possible to include flight-configuration tanks in this series of first-stage tests. ESA had planned 2 more development tests before May 1978, followed by 3 qualification tests of the first stage before final qualification. (ESA anno Dec 13/77)
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