Three Launchers Return to Flight

Some space content for the list.

During the past three weeks, three space launchers have
successfully returned to flight after having suffered
failures in prior flights.

They were Ariane 5-ECA from Kourou, H-2A from Tanegashima,
and Zenit 3SL from a floating platform in the equatorial
Pacific Ocean. Combined, they put a total of more than
16 metric tons into geosynchronous transfer orbits.

Zenit 3SL returned to flight after suffering an upper
stage failure in 2004. H-2A hadn't flown since it
suffered an SRB-A nozzle burn-through in 2003.
Ariane 5-ECA last flew in 2002, when a thrust chamber
failure of its Vulcain-2 main engine during the vehicle's
inaugural mission initiated a massive redesign/development
effort that finally bore fruit last month.

The successes reduce the number of "failure-recovering"
rockets to three or four or five. Among these are Space
Shuttle, Delta IV, and Isreal's Shavit.

- Ed Kyle