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Ariane 4 Successfully Launches New Skies Satellite
By PETER B. de SELDING
Space News Staff Writer
posted: 10:13 am ET
18 December 2002
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PARIS -- An Ariane 44L rocket successfully launched New Skies Satellites' NSS-6 spacecraft Dec PARIS -- An Ariane 44L rocket successfully launched New Skies Satellites' NSS-6 spacecraft Dec. 17 in the next-to-last Ariane 4 mission scheduled before the vehicle is retired in favor of the bigger Ariane 5 vehicle. The last Ariane 4 is scheduled to orbit an Intelsat satellite in February. The launch came six days after the launch failure of the first upgraded version of Ariane 5. The 4,750-kilogram NSS-6 will provide Ku- and Ka-band coverage over Asia, with 10 uplink spot beams in Ka-band -- a relatively unused section of the radio spectrum -- to permit high-speed access to the satellite from Ka-band antennas in several of the largest cities in China and India, as well as Australia. NSS-6 is a Lockheed Martin A2100 satellite to be operated from New Skies' 95 degrees east longitude orbital slot. Six wide beam Ku-band antennas will provide coverage from India through Asia and as far east as eastern Australia. New Skies, based in The Hague, Netherlands, also announced that its NSS-5 satellite, previously known as NSS-803, had been moved from its slot over the Atlantic Ocean to New Skies Asian slot at 183 degrees east longitude, over the Pacific Ocean. Commercial transmissions from this satellite at its new position began Dec. 16. Launch-services provider Arianespace and the European Space Agency continue to proceed with preparations for a mid-January launch of the agency's Rosetta comet-chaser satellite despite uncertainty over whether failure-review board will clear the basic version of Ariane 5 for launch. Early indications are that the Dec. 11 failure was caused by the rocket's Vulcain 2 main-stage cryogenic engine, a more-powerful version of the motor used on the basic Ariane 5 model. Investigators have been given a Jan. 6 deadline to determine whether the Ariane 5 to be used for Rosetta is fit to fly.
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