1996 · Ariane 5 Flight 501 Debris · Work 1273 of 1,871
An inspection laboratory in French Guiana on a humid June afternoon, rain on louvred windows, white light from overhead tubes, on a steel bench covered with a grey rubber mat small fragments in a row, a charred bundle of copper-red wires bound with scraps of silver tape, a broken brownish piece of circuit board with a silver chip, a black hexagon socket screw, the shattered pieces of a thin blue solar cell disc, beside each fragment a small blank white tag on a string, two hands in white cotton gloves holding steel tweezers above the solar cell, a magnifying lamp on a jointed arm, every surface plain and unmarked.