Ariane 5 ready for Arianespace’s upcoming heavy-lift mission

Dear reader and followers,

Arianespace has delivered another Ariane 5 to the launch zone at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, positioning this workhorse heavy-lift vehicle for tomorrow’s flight with a pair of telecommunications satellites: THOR 7 and SICRAL 2.

The Ariane 5 rolled out yesterday from the Spaceport’s Final Assembly Building to the ELA-3 launch zone, where it is scheduled for liftoff during a launch window that opens on April 24th at 4:38 p.m. local time in French Guiana, or 9:38 Paris time.

Credit image: Ariane Space

For this 78th overall flight of an Ariane 5, the payload lift performance is estimated at 9,850 kg. – which includes a combined total of some 9,000 kg for the two satellites, plus the launcher’s dual-passenger dispenser system and integration hardware.

Riding as the upper passenger in Ariane 5’s payload arrangement is THOR 7, which will be released at approximately 28 minutes into the mission. The spacecraft was built by SSL (Space Systems/Loral) for Telenor Satellite Broadcasting, and will operate from an orbital position of .8 deg. West.

THOR 7 is to serve the maritime sector, delivering high-powered coverage over the North Sea, the Norwegian Sea, the Red Sea, the Baltic Sea and the Mediterranean. Also incorporated in this relay platform is a Ku-band payload for broadcast and television services in Central and Eastern Europe.

SICRAL 2 is a military telecommunications satellite developed in the framework of a turnkey contract that the Italian Defense Ministry and the French DGA armament agency (Direction Générale de l’Armement) have with Thales Alenia Space Italy; while Telespazio is responsible for the launch service. It will be deployed from Ariane 5’s lower passenger position at approximately 34 minutes after liftoff – completing the mission.

After the deployment by Ariane 5, SICRAL 2 – offering a design life of 15 years – will provide strategic and tactical telecommunications links for French and Italian military forces, as well as reserve capacity for other NATO nations.

Tomorrow’s Ariane 5 launch is designated VA222, signifying the 222nd liftoff of an Ariane-series vehicle since 1979. It also will mark Arianespace’s third flight in 2015 with a launcher from its three-member family – following the medium-lift Soyuz mission on March 27 that orbited two European Galileo FOC (Full Operational Capability) navigation satellites, and February 11’s lightweight Vega suborbital flight with Europe’s Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV) spaceplane.

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Successful space launch performed by the ESA rocket Vega

Dear readers and followers,

yesterday night, April 30th, the space launcher of the +European Space Agency, ESA called Vega, succeeded its Arianespace’s fourth mission so far in 2014, putting the company on track to perform a total of 12 launches from Europe’s Spaceport during the year. The lift-off occurred at the space center in Kourou, French Guiana, at 10:35 pm local time.

Credit: ArianeSpace

This launch leads to orbit an 800 kg Earth observation spacecraft, called KazEOSat-1 which will provide many images to the Republic of Kazakhstan with a complete range of civil applications; for instance, the monitoring of natural and agricultural resources, provision of mapping data, and support for rescue operations in the event of a natural disaster.

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59th straight success for Ariane 5 from Kourou

Dear followers and readers,

last Saturday, March 22th 2014, the European space rocket, Ariane 5, performed with success a flawless launch from Europe’s spaceport at Kourou, French guiana. The space rocket orbited two telecommunications satellites, ASTRA 5B and Amazonas 4A. The flight was the European launcher’s 59th straight success since 2003. 

Credit image: CNES 

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Successful launch and orbiting of 2 satellites by Ariane 5

Dear followers,

yesterday, the European space rocket, Ariane 5, performed its first 2014 launch from Kourou, French Guiana. Ariane 5 orbited 2 telecommunications satellites, Athena-Fidus and ABS-2 at  21:30 UTC (February 6th).

Credit: +CNES 

Athena-Fidus (Access on THeatres for European Nations Allied forces - French Italian Dual Use Satellite) is a telecommunications satellite developped by the large collaboration between France and Italia. Developed for CNES, the Italian space agency ASI, the French Defense agency (DGA) and the Italian Ministry of Defence, it will deliver telecommunications services to French and Italian military and civil protection forces, complementing capacity already provided by the Syracuse and SICRAL satellites.

In an other hand, ABS-2 is a telecommunications satellite that will enable the operator Asia Broadcast Satellite (ABS) to deliver telecommunications, television, multimedia and data transmission services to Asia, Russia, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Africa, Europe and the Middle East.

Enjoy the European Ariane 5 rocket blasted off from Kourou in French Guiana

Credit: +Arianespace 

Success of the fourth Ariane5 launch in 2013

Dear followers,

yesterday night, two satellites were successfully geostationary transfer orbit by an Ariane 5 rocket fired from Kourou, French Guiana, +Arianespace announced. It is the 215th Ariane launch and 71st for the Ariane 5 space launcher.This fourth Ariane launch of the year from the Guiana Space Centre began at 17:30 Kourou time (22h30 Paris time) at the beginning of the launch window.

Credits: AFP

This fourth Ariane launch of the year from the Guiana Space Centre began at 17:30 Kourou time (22h30 Paris time) at the beginning of the launch window.

This is the 57th consecutive success for the European launcher, which "confirms the unparalleled level of reliability of our delivery systems," said the CEO of +Arianespace, Stéphane Israel.

The payload placed on a geostationary orbit was two satellites: EUTELSAT 25B/Es of the European operator Eutelsat and Qatari Es'hailSat, and GSAT-7 for Indian space agency (ISRO).

With a total launch mass of about 6.3 tons, EUTELSAT 25B/Es satelliste must serve the growing markets of the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia. This satellite will enhance the coverage and power of EUTELSAT 25C which he will take over.

GSAT-7 is the 17th satellite entrusted by the Indian space agency to the European launcher. With a weight of 2.6 tonnes, this satellite will offer to the entire Indian subcontinent telecommunications services multi-band (Ku, C, S and UHF).

Update : video of the take-off

Successful take-off of Ariane 5 carrying alphasat from Kourou

Credits: +European Space Agency, ESA 

Successful launch of Soyuz from Kourou Space Center

Credits: SpaceVids.tv and +Arianespace 

ESA's Vega launcher performes new success with commercials satellite and micro-satellite

Dear follower,

after the successful launch of +NASA few days ago, +European Space Agency, ESA scores a second flight with the newest launch vehicle, Vega from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.

Two Earth observation satellites, ESA’s Proba-V and Vietnam’s VNREDSat‑1A, were released into different orbits, demonstrating the rocket’s versatility. Estonia’s first satellite, the ESTCube‑1 technology demonstrator, was also released into orbit.

After releasing the first satellite Proba-V, the upper stage performed a third burn and the top half of the egg-shaped Vega Secondary Payload Adapter was ejected. After a fourth burn to circularize the orbit at an altitude of 704 km, VNREDSat-1A was released around 2 hours into flight. ESTCube‑1 was ejected from its dispenser few minutes later.

ESTCube-1 is Estonia’s first satellite. This 1.3 kg CubeSat was designed and built by students from the University of Tartu with a contribution from the Finnish Meteorological Institute. It will deploy a 10 m-long tether to demonstrate electrostatic movement through the plasma flow, which could lead to electrostatic solar sails for propellant-less interplanetary travel.