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In a recent question asked here, it was asked what debris falling from a Rocket Lab Electron Rocket was during launch.
e.g.:
The answer, was that it was ice that had formed after cryogenic fuel/oxidiser tanks were filled, and that vibrations/other stresses caused it to fall off during launch.
This lead to a comment:
Why don't American and Ariane rockets seem to have the same problem?
Why don't they have this problem? Or do they indeed have the ice problem?
Ariane 5 does not shed ice at liftoff. The first stage is covered in foam insulation that prevents ice buildup.
In this image, the insulation is the brown stuff. Later Ariane 5 versions switched to light-blue insulation tiles.
The Shuttle had insulation on its External Tank for the same purpose. For the Shuttle, it was critical not to have chunks of ice break off from the ET and strike the (fragile) heat shield tiles of the orbiter.
Other launchers (like the Falcon 9) do without the insulation and accept the ice buildup. This question gives some examples and shows how much ice would build up.
They do.
Ariane 5 uses Liquid Oxygen/Liquid Hydrogen for its main stage engine, so ice accumulation on the body also occurs. See this video for a very clear example of it falling away, but on most launches it's still visible.
Editors note: these highlighted panels are NOT ice, they are covers for the SRB attachment points. See this answer.
Here's ice falling from a SpaceX vehicle:
This question gives more examples with images of US-based launches demonstrating the same phenomenon.
