SPACE officials put a brave face yesterday on the spectacular failure of the first Ariane-5 rocket, saying it was probably due to an -automatic pilot fault while French media harped on the waste of public money.
"A 37 billion franc fireworks display" headlined the daily Liberation, describing the pillar of smoke and cascade of flaming debris pictured on all front pages a day after the rocket's maiden launch from Kourou, French Guina, was aborted.
Ground controllers destroyed the rocket, together with its uninsured $500 million scientific satellite payload, when it veered off course 37 seconds after leaving the ground.
"This is not a disaster, but rather an incident. .. It will not delay the second mission for a long time," Mr Yves le Gall, head of strategy at the France space agency CNES, told France Inter radio.
An initial investigation pointed to an electronic guidance error, rather than a more serious propulsion fault.
"We could have feared an incident on the propulsion system, it does not appear to be the case. .. We are rather confident, as an electronic system is not the propulsion system and does not need costly tests," Mr le Gall said.
Echoing Mr le Gall, the French Space Minister, Mr Francois Fillon, said the cost of the failure would not be very high if it was due to a guidance fault "If the failure had been due to a design fault or a propulsion problem, everything would have to begin again and the cost would be high.
He said the Ariane-5 project had so far cost some 40 billion francs (£4.86 billion) and was already 20 per cent over budget.
The commission set up to investigate the failure will report by mid July. The second Ariane-5 rocket has already been built but its launch, scheduled for September, will probably be delayed, Mr Fillon said.
President Jacques Chirac voiced his trust and support for all those who had worked for a decade on Ariane-5.
"I am at their side, sharing their, disappointment today just as tomorrow I will share their pride when Ariane-5 is completely ready", Mr Chirac told a cabinet meeting.
Analysts say it will now be difficult to portray Ariane-5 as the asset maintaining western Europe's lead in launching heavy satellites and possibly leading to manned space flights.
But Mr le Gall ruled out the possibility of Europe pulling out of the space race.
"Europe cannot abandon the conquest of space", he said. "We will continue developing rockets that we need to launch big communications satellites .. We will forge ahead."