THE European space programme suffered a stunning blow yesterday when mission control engineers where forced to destroy its new generation Ariane-5 rocket seconds after the launch went disastrously wrong.
The unmanned rocket bloomed into a massive fireball 59 seconds after the apparently successful lift off from the launch pad in Kourou, French Guiana. Engineers detonated the rocket from the ground after it veered off course.
The resulting explosion was seen by millions live on television.
The failure was apparently due to a fault in the automatic guidance system, officials said.
Mr Raymond Orye, an official with the Ariane-5 programme at the European Space Agency (ESA), said preliminary efforts to determine the cause of the mishap had found no problems with the thrust in either the main booster stage or either of the two acceleration stages of the rocket.
But an initial analysis of flight data showed that, 37 seconds into the flight, steering mechanisms in all three stages jammed. At the same time, the unit that controls the rocket signalled that it had malfunctioned.
The Ariane-5, carrying a $500 million package of four Cluster satellites for the European Space Agency (ESA), was reduced within seconds to a thick hail of blazing debris spread over a radius of three miles. There were no reports of injuries on the ground.
Up to 10 Irish companies have worked on previous Ariane projects, but only two, Devtec in Dublin and Moog Ltd in Cork, were involved this time, Devtec, the former Aer Lingus aerospace design and manufacturing company, is a shareholder in the project.
The ESA had taken out civil liability insurance cover worth 150 million ecu on yesterday's launch, but the rocket and the four satellites, all ESA property, were not covered, a spokesman for the French insurers Cecar said.
Yesterday's launch appeared to be going normally, after being delayed for nearly an hour due to bad weather. Applause erupted as the vessel pulled up into the sky at 12.35 p.m. Irish time.
But less than a minute after take off, and at about 4,000 metres altitude, the huge rocket the heaviest built in Europe was seen to suddenly flip over in the sky, then explode in flames.
A spokesman for the CNES authorities said the decision to blow up the rocket had been taken to minimise risk. He confirmed that there were no reported injuries, and said ground staff had remained in protected areas at all times.
Yesterday's launch was to be followed by a second test flight in September. The schedule called for a third flight in early 1997 to begin commercial use of the rocket.
Since 1988 the European Space Agency and 12 of its 13 member countries Britain refused to contribute from the start have devoted nearly 37 billion French francs (about £4.5 billion) to developing Ariane-5, the biggest launcher ever made in Europe, weighing 710 to 718 tonnes at lift off.
Ariane-5, nearly a year behind target, was planned to exist side by side with the Ariane-4 until the end of the century.