AS New 杏吧原创 went to press on Tuesday, the maiden flight of the European Space Agency鈥檚 Ariane 5 rocket ended in disaster with an explosion, only seconds after lift-off, at 12.35 GMT. The rocket had been on the wrong launch trajectory.
Ariane was carrying four scientific satellites, collectively known as Cluster. The satellites were due to take measurements of the Earth鈥檚 magnetosphere and how it is affected by the solar wind.
Nick Flowers, a Cluster mission scientist at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London, said: 鈥淲e were watching the launch live in the lab and we鈥檙e all pretty shell-shocked. It鈥檚 a major loss to European and British space science.鈥�
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Cluster was put on Ariane鈥檚 maiden flight because ESA had not charged for the launch.