Last night, an Ariane 5 lifted off from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana on a journey to place two telecommunications satellites, W3B and BSAT-3b, into orbit. Flight V197 was Ariane 5's fourth dual-payload mission of the year. Liftoff of the 53rd Ariane 5 mission came at 23:51 CEST (21:51 GMT; 18:51 French Guiana). The target injection orbit had a perigee altitude of 250 km, an apogee altitude at injection of 35 913 km and an inclination of 2º. The satellites were accurately injected into their transfer orbits about 28 minutes and 37 minutes after liftoff, respectively. Read more
Europe's workhorse rocket, the Ariane 5, has placed another two commercial satellites in orbit. The vehicle lifted off from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana, taking 38 minutes to complete its mission. The 8.2-tonne payload included the W3B spacecraft, which will provide TV, radio, internet and other data services for the Paris-based operator Eutelsat. Read more
Ariane 5 rolls out for its launch with the W3B and BSAT-3b satellites
The Ariane 5 for Arianespace's next mission has moved to the launch pad at Europe's Spaceport, readying it for tomorrow's liftoff with a dual payload of telecommunications satellites for Europe and Japan. Emerging under clear French Guiana skies at 10:45 a.m. local time today, the heavy-lift Ariane 5 ECA was transferred during a one-hour process from the Spaceport's Final Assembly Building to the launch zone. Read more
Lockheed Martin-Built BSAT-3b Satellite Ready for Launch
The BSAT-3b broadcasting satellite, designed and built by Lockheed Martin for the Broadcasting Satellite System Corporation (B-SAT) of Japan, is ready for liftoff on Oct. 28 aboard an Ariane 5-ECA launch vehicle provided by Arianespace. The launch window opens at 5:51 p.m. ET and closes at 7:01 p.m. ET. Read more