ELA-1

ELA-1, short for Ensemble de Lancement Ariane 1 (French for Ariane Launch Area 1), now named Ensemble de Lancement Vega (short ELV), is a launch pad at the Centre Spatial Guyanais in French Guiana. It has been used to support launches of the Europa rocket, Ariane 1, Ariane 3, and is currently used to launch Vega rockets.[1]

Ensemble de Lancement Vega
Ensemble de Lancement Ariane 1

Vega rocket on launch pad before the launch of Sentinel-2A in June 2015
Launch site	Centre Spatial Guyanais
Location	5.236°N 52.775°W / 5.236; -52.775
Short name	CECLES, ELA-1, ELV
Operator	European Space Agency CNES
Total launches	41 1 Europa 11 Ariane 1 5 Ariane 2 9 Ariane 3 15 Vega
Launch history Status Active First launch 5 November 1971 Europa II / STV-4 Last launch Active Associated rockets Europa II Ariane 1 Ariane 2 Ariane 3 Vega (active)

History

Europa (BEC)

ELA-1, at the time designated Base Équatoriale du CECLES (BEC) was constructed as an equatorial launch site for the Europa-II rocket which was being built as part of the ELDO programme. The first launch occurred on 5 November 1971. This was the only flight of the Europa-II, which ended in failure due to a guidance problem. The launch site was mothballed, and later demolished.

Ariane (ELA)

When the Ariane 1 programme was started, to replace the failed ELDO programme, a new launch site was built on the site of the former CECLES pad. This was designated Ensemble de Lancement Ariane (ELA). The first Ariane 1 launch occurred on 24 December 1979. ELA was also used by Ariane 2 and Ariane 3 rockets, which first flew on 31 May 1986 and 4 August 1984 respectively. ELA was redesignated ELA-1 when the Ariane 4 entered service in 1988, as this launched from a separate launch pad, designated ELA-2. The Ariane 1 was retired on 22 February 1986, the Ariane 2 on 2 April 1989, and the Ariane 3 on 12 July 1989. ELA was subsequently demolished.

Vega (ELV)

In November 2001, started the redevelopment of the pad to accommodate the Vega rocket and the ELA-1 was redesignated Ensemble de Lancement Vega (ELV).[2] The reconstruction retained the Ariane 1 flame trench and added a new 50 m tall retractable vertical assembly building to cover rocket during the preparation, four lighting protection masts and a new launch tower for the rocket. The launchpad is sometimes also designated as Site de Lancement Vega (SLV) and Zone de Lancement Vega (ZLV). Vega made its first launch from the complex on 13 February 2012.

Launch History

N°	Date	Flight	Launcher	Payload	Result	References
1	5 November 1971	F-11	Europa 2	satellite mockup	Failure	[3]
2	24 December 1979	L-1	Ariane 1	CAT-1	Success [4]
3	23 May 1980	L-2		Firewheel Subsat-1,2,3,4 Amsat P3A CAT 2	Failure	[4]
4	19 June 1981	L-3		Meteosat 2 Apple CAT 3	Success	[4]
5	20 December 1981	L-4		MARECS 1 CAT 4	Success	[4]
6	19 September 1982	L-5		MARECS B Sirio 2	Failure	[4]
7	16 June 1983	L-6		ECS 1 Amsat P3B (Oscar 10)	Success	[4]
8	19 October 1983	L-7		Intelsat 507	Success	[4]
9	5 March 1984	L-8		Intelsat 508	Success	[4][5]
10	23 May 1984	V-9		Spacenet F1	Success	[4][5]
11	4 August 1984	V-10	Ariane 3	Eutelsat 2 Telecom 1A	Success	[5][6]
12	10 November 1984	V-11		Spacenet F2 MARECS 2	Success	[5][6]
13	8 February 1985	V-12		Arabsat-1A Brasilsat-A1	Success	[5][6]
14	8 May 1985	V-13		GStar 1 Télécom 1B	Success	[5][6]
15	2 July 1985	V-14	Ariane 1	Giotto	Success	[4][5]
16	12 September 1985	V-15	Ariane 3	Spacenet 3 ECS 3	Failure	[5][6][7]
17	22 February 1986	V-16	Ariane 1	SPOT 1 Viking	Success	[4][5][7]
Flight V-17 (Ariane 3) was the first flight to launch from ELA-2 on 28 March 1986 [6][8]
18	31 May 1986	V-18	Ariane 2	Intelsat VA F-14	Failure	[5][7][9]
19	16 September 1987	V-19	Ariane 3	Aussat A3 ECS 4	Success	[5][6][7]
Flight V-20 (Ariane 2) launched from ELA-2 on 20 November 1987 [7][8][9]
20	11 March 1988	V-21	Ariane 3	Spacenet 3R Telecom 1C	Success	[5][6][7]
Flight V-22 (Maiden flight Ariane 4) launched from ELA-2 on 15 June 1988 [5][7][8]
21	17 May 1988	V-23	Ariane 2	Intelsat VA F-13	Success	[5][7][9]
22	21 July 1988	V-24	Ariane 3	INSAT-1C ECS 5	Success	[5][6][7]
Flight V-25 (Ariane 3) launched from ELA-2 on 8 September 1988 [6][7][8]
23	28 October 1988	V-26	Ariane 2	TDF 1	Success	[5][7][9]
24	27 January 1989	V-28		Intelsat VA F-15	Success	[5][7][9]
25	2 April 1989	V-30		Tele-X	Success	[5][7][9]
26	11 July 1989	V-32	Ariane 3	Olympus-1	Success	[5][6][7]
Flights V27, V29 and V31 were launched from ELA-2. V27, V29 and V31 were all operated by Ariane 4[8]
From July 1989 until February 2012, no rockets were launched from ELA-1. As an alternative, ELA-2 and ELA-3 were used. In November 2001, construction works started to prepare the pad for the lightweight Vega rocket.
27	13 February 2012	VV-01	Vega	LARES Xatcobeo (cubesat) e-st@r (cubesat) ROBUSTA (cubesat) MaSat-1 (cubesat) Goliat (cubesat) PW-Sat (cubesat) UniCubeSat-GG (cubesat)	Success	[10]
28	7 May 2013	VV-02		PROBA-V VNREDSat-1A ESTCube-1	Success	[10]
29	30 April 2014	VV-03		KazEOSat 1	Success	[10]
30	11 February 2015	VV-04		IVX	Success	[10]
31	23 June 2015	VV-05		Sentinel-2A	Success	[10]
32	3 December 2015	VV-06		LISA Pathfinder	Success	[10]
33	16 September 2016	VV-07		PeruSat-1 4 Terra Bella satellites	Success	[10]
34	5 December 2016	VV-08		Göktürk-1A	Success	[10]
35	9 March 2017	VV-09		Sentinel-2B	Success	[10]
36	2 August 2017	VV-10		OPTSAT-3000 VENµS	Success
37	8 November 2017	VV-11		2 MN35-13 satellites	Success
38	22 August 2018	VV-12		ADM-Aeolus	Success
39	21 November 2018	VV-13		Mohammed VI-B	Success
40	22 March 2019	VV-14		PRISMA	Success
41	11 July 2019	VV-15		FalconEye 1	Failure

Situation on 1 June 2020

See also

• Ariane 1
• Ariane 2
• Ariane 3
• Ariane (rocket family)
• Europa
• Vega
• ELA-2
• Centre Spatial Guyanais

References

1. "Operations". Arianespace. Retrieved 31 December 2015.
2. "BEC, ELA, ELV, d'EUROPA à VEGA". Capcomespace. Retrieved 23 August 2018.
3. "Europa". Encyclopedia Astronautica. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 31 December 2015.
4. "Ariane 1". Encyclopedia Astronautica. Retrieved 31 December 2015.
5. "Kourou ELA 1". Encyclopedia Astronautica. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 31 December 2015.
6. "Ariane 3". Encyclopedia Astronautica. Retrieved 31 December 2015.
7. Harvey, Brian (14 February 2003). "List of European space launchings". Europe's Space Programme: To Ariane and Beyond. Book Springer Science & Business Media. pp. 358–361. ISBN 978-1-852-33722-3.
8. "Kourou ELA-2". Encyclopedia Astronautica. Archived from the original on 1 February 2010. Retrieved 31 December 2015.
9. "Ariane 2". Encyclopedia Astronautica. Retrieved 31 December 2015.
10. "Vega Milestones". Arianespace. Retrieved 31 December 2015.

External links

• Encyclopedia Astronautica - Kourou