Peter47
I wouldn't want to put a satellite on an untested rocket but perhaps they got a special rate.
I vaguely recall hearing (from somebody close to the project) that the Cluster team may have got a special rate (freebie?) for their satellites on the first Ariane V launch.....
Edit to add that for once my memory wasn't playing tricks:
https://www.esa.int/esapub/bulletin/...7/cavall87.htm
"
'A free demonstration flight on Ariane-5 should therefore be considered ..........................................."
and much further down the page:
"Conclusion
All in all then, there was nothing so extra-ordinary about the ESA decision to fly the Cluster mission on Ariane-501, especially given the great emphasis on cost savings to which the mission was subjected throughout its development. Of course, with the luxury of twenty-twenty hindsight, we all might have taken different decisions along the way."