Highly successful test flight of Ariane 503
22 October 1998
After the highly successful test flight of the Ariane 503, Martin Huber, Head of ESA's Space Science Department, said:" With the successful launch of Ariane 503, ESA's Science Directorate cannow look forward optimistically to the future as two of its major missions inthe future programme are due to be launched on board Ariane 5's.We will launch the X-ray Multi-mirror Mission, XMM, in 2000, and the Rosettamission will start its journey to a rendez-vous with Comet Wirtanenon board an Ariane 5 rocket in 2003"Last Update: 1 September 2019