24 December 1979, the 1^st Ariane launcher roared skyward. The Ariane series continued to evolve thereafter, with payload lift capacity increasing progressively from 1 tonne on Ariane 1 to 4.8 tonnes for the most powerful variant of Ariane 4.
This performance boost was driven by constant technical improvements to the launcher, such as additional solid and liquid boosters and a dual-launch capability on Ariane 3, and a larger payload fairing on Ariane 4.

At the same time, the programme’s objectives also began to shift their focus. Originally, its aim was to affirm Europe’s independent access to space with a system configured for 2 to 3 launches per year. That policy goal quickly became an economic goal when a real market for space transport began to emerge in the 1980s.

CNES began conceiving a heavy-lift launcher that would eventually take over from Ariane 4 as far back as 1977, even before the 1^st launch of Ariane 1 and the approval of the Ariane 2 and 3 programmes.
Initial research was tied to ongoing work at the time on a human-rated spaceplane, Hermes, which would have required a launcher capable of placing 10 tonnes into low-Earth orbit with a very high degree of reliability.

Project objectives at that time focused on 3 points:

• giving Europe a competitive launcher to orbit geostationary spacecraft by the late 1990s
• enabling Europe to put humans in space
• cornering the launch market for satellites in low-Earth orbit

14 June 1984, an inter-ministerial committee authorized CNES to begin preliminary studies for Ariane 5 in cooperation with ESA partners. European space ministers in Rome gave the go-ahead for the programme in January 1985, and development was approved in November 1987 by the ESA Ministerial Council meeting in The Hague.

Ariane 5’s goal is to make a leap in terms of performance, increasing lift capacity into geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) to 6.8 tonnes, compared to 4.8 tonnes for Ariane 4, while at the same time significantly reducing launch costs.

Ariane 5’s scalable architecture is also designed to evolve in response to changing market requirements.
Due to the cost and complexity of the Hermes project, the idea of a dual-use programme was abandoned in favour of a launcher capable of orbiting only automated payloads.

The first qualification flight on 4 June 1996 ended in failure. After 37 sec, the launcher veered off course and its safety systems triggered an abort. Once the project teams had identified the causes of the failure, they spent nearly 16 months making multiple verifications.

Ariane 5 lifted off on its second flight from French Guiana on 30 October 1997. This time, the mission was successful despite some anomalies. And on 21 October 1998, the third qualification flight went exactly as planned, clearing the launcher to enter service.