Solid boosters Attached to the sides are two P241 (P238 for Ariane 5G and G+) solid rocket boosters (SRBs or EAPs from the French Étages d'Accélération à Poudre), each weighing about full and delivering a thrust of about . They are fueled by a mix of ammonium perchlorate (68%) and aluminium fuel (18%) and HTPB (14%). They each burn for 130 seconds before being dropped into the ocean. The SRBs are usually allowed to sink to the bottom of the ocean, but, like the Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Boosters, they can be recovered with parachutes, and this has occasionally been done for post-flight analysis. Unlike Space Shuttle SRBs, Ariane 5 boosters are not reused. The most recent attempt was for the first Ariane 5 ECA mission in 2009. One of the two boosters was successfully recovered and returned to the Guiana Space Center for analysis. Prior to that mission, the last such recovery and testing was done in 2003. The French M51 submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) shares a substantial amount of technology with these boosters. In February 2000, the suspected nose cone of an Ariane 5 booster washed ashore on the South Texas coast, and was recovered by beachcombers before the government could get to it. Second stage The second stage is on top of the main stage and below the payload. The original Ariane — Ariane 5G — used the EPS (Étage à Propergols Stockables — Storable Propellant Stage), which was fueled by monomethylhydrazine (MMH) and nitrogen tetroxide, containing of storable propellant. The EPS was subsequently improved for use on the Ariane 5G+, GS, and ES. The EPS upper stage is capable of repeated ignition, first demonstrated during flight V26 which was launched on 5 October 2007. This was purely to test the engine, and occurred after the payloads had been deployed. The first operational use of restart capability as part of a mission came on 9 March 2008, when two burns were made to deploy the first Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) into a circular parking orbit, followed by a third burn after ATV deployment to de-orbit the stage. This procedure was repeated for all subsequent ATV flights. Ariane 5ECA uses the ESC (Étage Supérieur Cryotechnique — Cryogenic Upper Stage), which is fueled by liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. The ESC uses the HM7B engine previously used in the Ariane 4 third stage. The propellent load of 14.7 tonne