Ariane 5 Rocket Successfully Lofts Satellite Pair

PARIS - Europe's Ariane 5 ECA rocket successfully placed a British military telecommunications satellite and a Turkish commercial spacecraft into orbit June 12 in the third of seven Ariane 5 liftoffs planned for 2008 and the 25th consecutive Ariane 5 launch success.

Jean-Yves Le Gall, chief executive of the Arianespace launch consortium, said the company's next Ariane 5 launch, scheduled for July 4, will carry the ProtoStar-1 and Badr-6 satellites owned by commercial startup Protostar Ltd. of Bermuda and the Arabsat satellite-fleet operator of Saudi Arabia, respectively.

The launch of the Skynet 5C telecommunications satellite completes the Skynet 5 in-orbit fleet and follows the Skynet 5A and 5B launches in March and November 2007.

The Skynet 5 satellites are owned and operated by Paradigm Secure Communications Ltd. of Britain, an Astrium Services subsidiary that is under a long-term contract with the British Defence Ministry to provide beyond-line-of-sight communications to British military forces until 2020. The British military makes annual lease payments in return for a guaranteed level of telecommunications capacity and does not own the infrastructure. Paradigm is free to sell excess Skynet capacity to other customers. The business model is unique in its scope and volume -- 3.6 billion British pounds ($7 billion) - and is being closely watched by other governments in Europe and elsewhere.

The three Skynet 5 spacecraft are Eurostar E3000 model satellites built by Astrium Satellites, which like Astrium Services is owned by the EADS aerospace conglomerate. Astrium's other space division - Astrium Space Transportation - is prime contractor for the Ariane 5 rocket.

Skynet 5C weighed 4,638 kilograms at launch and is expected to operate in orbit for 15 years. Its initial position will be at 17.8 degrees west longitude.

Patrick Wood, Skynet program manager at Paradigm, said the Skynet 5C satellite was delivered ahead of the schedule set eight years ago when the satellite contract was signed.

Turksat 3A, weighing 3,110 kilograms at launch and carrying 24 Ku-band transponders, was built by Thales Alenia Space of France and Italy and will replace the retiring Turksat 1C satellite at Turkey's 42 degrees east longitude slot. The satellite is owned by Turksat AS of Ankara.

In an address broadcast at the Guiana Space Center spaceport in French Guiana after the launch, Turkish Transport Minister Binali Yildirim said Turksat 3A will sell capacity to a large number of countries in the region. He said numerous Turkish engineers had worked with Thales Alenia Space in France to build Turksat 3A.

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