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The European Space Agency is an intergovernmental organisation of 22 member states. Established in 1975 and headquartered in Paris, France, ESA has a worldwide staff of about 2,000 employees. ESA's space flight programme includes human spaceflight (mainly through participation in the International Space Station program); the launch and operation of unmanned exploration missions to other planets and the Moon; Earth observation, science and telecommunication; designing launch vehicles; and maintaining a major spaceport, the Guiana Space Centre at Kourou, French Guiana.
MaqSat 3 was a dummy satellite to test the Ariane Vehicle. ARD was the Advanced Reentry Demonstrator, built by ESA. This is developed for experimental purposes to validate reentry techniques.
Height 57.00 Meters
Max Stages 2
Mass To GTO 6900 kg
Liftoff Thrust 0 kN
Diameter 5.40 Meters
Mass To LEO 12200 kg
Liftoff Mass 737 Tonnes
Launch Success 13
Consecutive Success 6
Maiden Flight 1996-06-04
Launch Failures 3