That bit of news is contained inside this BBC article, Rosetta comet probe to be dismantled

BBC News Online understands that at that time the full report into the Ariane 157 launch failure had only been seen by the most senior managers at the rocket's operators, Arianespace, and the European Space Agency (Esa), and it was more damning than anyone had expected.



The report said there were so many unsolved problems and widespread weaknesses in Ariane 5 that it was not safe to launch anything.

Widespread problems

Especially worrying for Arianespace, and the global launch industry, is that the flight 157 accident review board identified significant problems in all versions of Ariane 5, not just the stretched version that failed in December 2002.

It was left to the head of Arianespace, Jean-Yves Le Gall, to tell his senior colleagues that Ariane 5, and Rosetta, should be grounded indefinitely.