Two new communications satellites
for India and the British military blasted off Sunday, riding an Ariane 5 into
orbit one day after a launch pad glitch prevented a Saturday launch attempt.
The heavy-lift Ariane 5 rocket hauled India's INSAT-4B broadcast
satellite and the British Ministry of Defense's Skynet-5A satellite into space
at 6:03 p.m. EDT (2203 GMT) from a launch pad at Europe's Guiana Space Center
in Kourou, French Guiana.
A glitch with the water deluge system at the Ariane 5's launch pad,
which is designed to suppress fire and sound during liftoff, prevented
a Saturday launch attempt.
"This will be the first in what we believe will be an extremely busy
year," Arianespace CEO Jean Yves Le Gall said before launch, adding that the
mission is the first of at least six planned space shots for the launch
provider.
Built by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), INSAT 4B [image]
is a 6,675-pound (3,028-kilogram) satellite designed to provide
telecommunications and television broadcast services for customers in India
from a geosynchronous orbit 22,300 miles (36,000
kilometers) above Earth.
Skynet-5A [image]
is a 10,361-pound (4,700-kilogram) communications satellite built for
the British Ministry of Defense to aid British and NATO military forces, as
well as those of the Netherlands, Canada, Belgium and other countries,
Arianespace officials said.
Paradigm Secure Communications, a subdivision of Skynet-5A manufacturer
EADS Astrium, will operate the satellite for the British defense ministry. According
to EADS Astrium, Paradigm holds a nearly $7 billion (5.3 billion Euro) contract to provide secure military satellite communications through
2020.
Sunday's successful launch marked Arianespace's 175th flight
of an Ariane booster and the 31st liftoff of the rocket family's
Ariane 5 variant. It also marked Arianespace's 13th launch for the
ISRO, Indian space agency officials said, adding that INSAT-4B is already
returning a healthy signal as it heads towards its final geosynchronous orbit.
"Of course, some believe that 13 is an unlucky number, but with
Arianespace it doesn't not seem to be so," ISRO chairman Madhavan Nair said
after the launch.
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