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A4

Rocket file · LV-222

Ariane 40

Aérospatiale · Ariane · RETIRED

Ariane 40 is an expendable launch vehicle built by Aérospatiale. It stands 55.6 m tall, lifts 4,600 kg to low Earth orbit, first flew on 22 January 1990. It has flown 7 times with 7 successes, a success rate of 100.0%. It has nothing on the Launch Library 2 schedule right now.

Specification

Vehicle spec sheet

ON FILE
Height55.6 m
Diameter3.8 m
Payload to LEO4,600 kg
Payload to GTO2,290 kg
Maiden flight22 January 1990
ReusableNo, expendable
Launch costNOT ON FILE
StatusRETIRED

As listed by Launch Library 2. The cost is Launch Library’s figure, not a quoted price. Figures for rockets outside the sixty most-flown were last read on 2026-11-05.

Flight record

Reliability

ON RECORD
Total flights7
Successful7
Failed0
Success rate100.0%
Landing attempts0
Landing successN/A
Scheduled0
Variant40

About Ariane 40

The Ariane 4 was an expendable space launch system, developed by the Centre national d'études spatiales (CNES), the French space agency, for the European Space Agency (ESA). It was manufactured by ArianeGroup and marketed by Arianespace. Since its first flight on 15 June 1988 until the final flight on 15 February 2003, it attained 113 successful launches out of 116 total launches.

Upcoming flights

Manifest

EMPTY

Ariane 40 is retired, and no flight is filed.

All upcoming launches

From NASA's public image library and Wikimedia Commons. Each photo shows the credit its licence asks for and links back to where it came from.

Ariane 5ES with ATV 4 on its way to ELA-3
Ariane 5ES with ATV 4 on its way to ELA-3DLR German Aerospace Center · CC BY 2.0Wikimedia Commons ↗
Belgian components for the Ariane 5 rocket
Belgian components for the Ariane 5 rocketSpaceMusk · CC BY-SA 4.0Wikimedia Commons ↗
Ariane 5 with James Webb Space Telescope Prelaunch. (NHQ202112230013)
Ariane 5 with James Webb Space Telescope Prelaunch. (NHQ202112230013)Bill Ingalls · public domainWikimedia Commons ↗

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Common questions

How many times has Ariane 40 flown?
7 times, with 7 successes and 0 failures.
What is Ariane 40's success rate?
100.0%. That's 7 successful flights out of 7 attempts.
How much can Ariane 40 lift to orbit?
Launch Library 2 lists Ariane 40 at 4,600 kg to low Earth orbit and 2,290 kg to geostationary transfer orbit.
Is Ariane 40 reusable?
No. Launch Library 2 lists Ariane 40 as expendable, so no stage is recovered to fly again.