Elf Atochem and Ariane: an ongoing partnership

Citation

(1998), "Elf Atochem and Ariane: an ongoing partnership", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 70 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/aeat.1998.12770fad.020

Elf Atochem and Ariane: an ongoing partnership

Elf Atochem and Ariane: an ongoing partnership

Keywords Elf Atochem, Fuel, Rockets, Thrust

With today's considerable increase in society's telecommunication needs, the number and weight of satellites required to orbit the earth is growing constantly. The latest Ariane V satellite launcher is designed to meet those very needs. It is in fact capable of carrying three times the payload of its predecessor Ariane IV, i.e. satellites weighing over seven tonnes.

To ensure the necessary thrust during the initial two minutes on take-off, Ariane V is fitted with two large lateral boosters each filled with 237 tonnes of solid propergol. It is in the composition of this propergol that Elf Atochem products may be found.

Solid propergol is a blend of 68 per cent ammonium perchlorate, 18 per cent aluminium, and 14 per cent hydroxylated polybutadiene, an inert and water-repellent binder used to solidify and bind the fuel blend.

Ammonium perchlorate is manufactured by the Société Nationale de Poudres et Explosifs (SNPE) from the sodium perchlorate produced by Elf Atochem in Jarrie (Isère). Hydroxylated polybutadiene, marketed by Elf Atochem under the trade name Poly Bd, is produced by Elf Atochem North America in Channelview (Texas) and by Elf Atochem Idemitsu Corporation in Japan. The ammonium perchlorate is blended with Poly Bd in Guiana and in Italy to produce propergol, which is then loaded into the boosters also in those countries.

Elf Atochem has served Arianespace's rockets faithfully over the years: for more than ten years, it has been the exclusive supplier of hydrazine hydrate and its derivative, unsymmetrical dimethyl hydrazine, both used as liquid fuel base for the Viking engines in the first two stages of Ariane IV. And with its sodium perchlorate and Poly Bd, Elf Atochem looks forward to serving the Ariane V high-yield programme, which is planning seven to eight launches per year eventually, with, in the immediate future, a most decisive step: the third qualifying launch of this latest European rocket!

Further details are available from Elf Atochem SA. Tel: +33 1 49 00 80 18/70 20/71 48/83 72; Fax: +33 1 49 00 80 50.