Retro Space HD | ARIANE 5 First Flight Failure - Flight 501, June 4, 1996, European Space Agency, Rocket Launch @RetroSpaceHD | Uploaded April 2021 | Updated October 2024, 1 day ago.
Launch of the first Ariane 5 rocket from the Guiana Space Centre, assembled from multiple sources. Sound is synchronized to video for consistency between recording locations.
Research, editing and processing by Retro Space HD.
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Ariane 5's first test flight (Ariane 5 Flight 501) on 4 June 1996 failed, with the rocket self-destructing 37 seconds after launch because of a malfunction in the control software.
A data conversion from 64-bit floating point value to 16-bit signed integer value to be stored in a variable representing horizontal bias caused a processor trap (operand error) because the floating point value was too large to be represented by a 16-bit signed integer.
The software was originally written for the Ariane 4 where efficiency considerations (the computer running the software had an 80% maximum workload requirement) led to four variables being protected with a handler while three others, including the horizontal bias variable, were left unprotected because it was thought that they were "physically limited or that there was a large margin of safety".
The software, written in Ada, was included in the Ariane 5 through the reuse of an entire Ariane 4 subsystem despite the fact that the particular software containing the bug, which was just a part of the subsystem, was not required by the Ariane 5 because it has a different preparation sequence than the Ariane 4.
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A special thanks to the channel supporters ( patreon.com/RetroSpaceHD ):
Asbjørn
Bill Hurley
Darcy Barrett
Ellie Burack
Francis Bernier
Gary Smith
Gio Pagliari
Jan Strzelecki
Jeff Pleimling
Jules E
Michael Pennington
Nathan Koga
Nathan Westwick
Noah Soderquist
Ryan Hardy
Scott Manley
========================================
#ariane5 #esa #rocket
Launch of the first Ariane 5 rocket from the Guiana Space Centre, assembled from multiple sources. Sound is synchronized to video for consistency between recording locations.
Research, editing and processing by Retro Space HD.
=========================================
Ariane 5's first test flight (Ariane 5 Flight 501) on 4 June 1996 failed, with the rocket self-destructing 37 seconds after launch because of a malfunction in the control software.
A data conversion from 64-bit floating point value to 16-bit signed integer value to be stored in a variable representing horizontal bias caused a processor trap (operand error) because the floating point value was too large to be represented by a 16-bit signed integer.
The software was originally written for the Ariane 4 where efficiency considerations (the computer running the software had an 80% maximum workload requirement) led to four variables being protected with a handler while three others, including the horizontal bias variable, were left unprotected because it was thought that they were "physically limited or that there was a large margin of safety".
The software, written in Ada, was included in the Ariane 5 through the reuse of an entire Ariane 4 subsystem despite the fact that the particular software containing the bug, which was just a part of the subsystem, was not required by the Ariane 5 because it has a different preparation sequence than the Ariane 4.
=========================================
A special thanks to the channel supporters ( patreon.com/RetroSpaceHD ):
Asbjørn
Bill Hurley
Darcy Barrett
Ellie Burack
Francis Bernier
Gary Smith
Gio Pagliari
Jan Strzelecki
Jeff Pleimling
Jules E
Michael Pennington
Nathan Koga
Nathan Westwick
Noah Soderquist
Ryan Hardy
Scott Manley
========================================
#ariane5 #esa #rocket