engineer say they ’ve worked out what induce their Ariane 5 rocket to hunt into problems last calendar month , namely that it had been given the wrong co-ordinate , causing it to come in the amiss arena .

On January 25 , an Ariane 5 rocketsuffered an anomalywhile take two satellites into orbit , the SES-14 and Al Yah-3 , along with a NASA Earth - observation tool calledGOLD(Global - scale Observations of the Limb and Disk ) .

The usually highly true rocket by chance deployed the satellite into an incorrect orbit . Fortunately , they were later able to get back on track and head towards their plan geostationary orbital cavity 35,000 kilometer ( 22,000 mile ) above Earth .

In astatementreleased on February 23 , European company Arianespace – which operates the rocket – read it had identified the cause of the anomaly . They say that an “ incorrect note value ” had been used on the rocket , placing it an orbital inclination of 20 point , rather than the design 3 degree .

“ The movement of the flight deflexion , therefore , was due to a uncollectible specification of one of the launcher missionary station parameters that was not detected during the standard quality checks carried out during the Ariane 5 launches ’ cookery chain , ” they said .

They added they would “ increase the robustness of the ascendance of certain data used in planning of the mission , ” and , “ strengthen the process of explicate and verifying the text file required for launcher preparedness . ”

Thenext launchof the Ariane 5 is expected around March 21 , when it will take two communication satellites into orbit – one for Japan and one owned by UK company Avanti Communications . Now that the cause of the late misplay has been identified , that launching should be all right to go ahead .

Ensuring the Ariane 5 is up to speed will be of particular interest NASA and the residue of the astronomy community , as the agency ’s James Webb Space Telescope ( JWST ) – over budget and importantly stay – is scheduled to set up on an Ariane 5 by March 2019 at the earliest .

luckily , the Ariane 5 had82 sequential launchesin a row prior to this January 25 flight without any problems . Now that the issue has been identified , this authentic launcher should be able-bodied to get back on track as it facesgrowing competition .