What happened yesterday?

At this moment, everything was still GO.

The final countdown was stopped 4 minutes and 1 second before the planned launch time because of a measurement anomaly in the liquid oxygen propellant tank of the cryogenic main stage for Ariane 5’s Flight v200 launch.

Images from Kourou

The launch vehicle and its payload – the Automated Transfer Vehicle Johannes Kepler – remain on the pad in safe mode, awaiting a restart of launch countdown today, 16 February.

The new launch time is set for tonight at 21:50:55 UTC = 18:50:55 local time in Kourou = 22:50:55 CET.

The teams here at ATV-CC have planned for launch delays many times in training; the trajectory calculations and related actions are now being verified and the control room is ready for the new launch attempt this evening.

ATV-CC on Wednesday morning at 9:50 CET

Countdown clock set to new launch time