CAA to contact ARIANE SPACE today

The parts of wreckage found on the Moruga beach early Saturday are believed to be part of a rocket owned by ARIANE SPACE.

Ariane Space, a French company formed in 1980, is the current leader in commercial space launch services. It established a launch facility in Kourou, French Guiana in 1966. The wreckage is not believed to be linked to the latest $17 million cocaine find in the Moruga area recently. The piece of fuselage found on Saturday is white in colour, and measured about 16 feet in length with the words “DEFENCE ORBITAL.” Below the writing, was an insignia: ARIANE SPACE. The words were written in red with blue stars and the markings are similar to a rocket owned by ARIANE SPACE. The last launch was on June 11, 2003.

In that launch, an Ariane 5G space vehicle carried two satellites into orbit. The first was the Optus and Defence C1 satellite, jointly owned by a company called Optus and the Australian Department of Defence and its purpose was telecommunications. Some of the markings on the wreckage appear similar to the national flag of Australia. The second satellite was owned by the Broadcasting Satellite System Corporation of Japan and was intended for use in digital TV broadcast. Officers of the Civil Aviation Authority said yesterday that they will be contacting officials of ARIANE SPACE today to find out if the wreckage found is owned by that company. Officers of the CAA returned to Moruga yesterday and made arrangements to have the wreckage removed. Hundreds of persons went to the Moruga beach yesterday to view the wreckage.