Today in History – December 24, 1979 – Launch of the Ariane rocket. In the 1970s, in the middle of the Cold War, the state of European aeronautics was in disarray. After Europa, Europe’s latest rocket, failed 11 times, many were skeptical that Europe could match the power that Russia and the USA had over outer space. However, in 1973, the French decided to take on the job that nobody else would by building the Ariane I, the 210,000 kg (462000 lb) rocket named after the character Ariadne from Greek mythology. Despite tremendous skepticism and several delays, the first launch of the Ariane Rocket on December 24th, 1979 was successful. Since then, the French company Arianespace continued to launch Ariane rockets from the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana, carrying along numerous satellites for orbit.

Since its birth, the Ariane Rocket has had its setbacks, such as the booster failure in 2002 that led to the craft’s self-destruction three minutes into flight. However, such failures have not been able to undermine the Ariane Rocket’s reliability; Twenty-eight years later, after 5 versions and hundreds of liftoffs, the Ariane rocket continues to be one of the premier commercial satellite launching systems in the world today.

For more information, see the Engineering Pathway’s resources on rockets and aerospace engineering. For curricular resources, visit the Aerospace Engineering Education community site.

Also on this date in history in 1975, first radioactive isotope medicine administered, Berkeley, California. This event at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory is acknowledged as the birth of nuclear medicine. For more information, see the Engineering Pathway’s resources on nuclear medicine. For curricular resources, visit the Nuclear Engineering Education and Biomedical Engineering Education community sites.