DARMSTADT,
Germany -- Europe's Ariane 5 GS rocket successfully placed an Indian
telecommunications satellite and a European weather satellite into orbit Dec.
21, marking the first time the heavy-lift rocket has conducted five launches
in a calendar year.
The launch
of the Indian Space Research Organization's Insat 4A telecommunications
satellite inaugurates a new generation of domestic communications spacecraft.
Insat 4A will be used for Indian domestic governmental and commercial
telecommunications. Its 12 Ku-band transponders have already been sold to
direct-broadcast television companies serviing India, an illustration of the surging
demand for satellite television in the subcontinent. The satellite also carries
12 C-band transponders.
It is a
demand that several commercial satellite-fleet operators would like to serve.
But India has a policy of obliging
direct-broadcast satellite television companies to use India's satellites unless those
satellites are full. The Indian Space Research Organization plans three more
Insat 4 satellites for launch by the end of 2008.
The launch
of the Metosat 9 satellite -- called MSG-2 before launch--for Europe's meteorological satellite
organization, the 18 nation Eumetsat, will give Europe a backup satellite to join its
twin, Meteosat 8, which is already operational. These two satellites are the
first of the four Meteosat Second Generation spacecraft, which provide imagery
from 12 spectral channels every 15 minutes.
The four
Meteosat Second Generation satellites will provide climate and weather data
through 2018. The total program is valued at 2 billion euros ($2.36 billion),
including the the production, launch and operations of the four satellites.
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