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Ariane 5 rocket carries pair of communications satellites into Earthorbit
By Jim Banke
Senior Producer,
posted: 07:45 pm ET
14 September 2000
ET
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This is an update to a story first posted at 6:55 p.m. EDT CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Europe's most powerful rocket carried a pair of communications satellites into Earth orbit on Thursday, successfully completing the seventh commercial mission launched this year by Arianespace from South America.
An Ariane 5 lifts off from the Guiana Space Center near Kourou, French Guiana carrying the GE-7 and Astra 2B satellites. Image from Arianespace TV, used with permission.
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The Ariane 5 rocket lifted off from the Guiana Space Center right on time at 6:54 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (22:54 GMT), beginning a 37 minute and 39 second voyage to deliver its cargo into space over Earth's equator. Ariane 5 is similar in configuration to the American Titan 4 rocket in that the vehicle is made up of a liquid-fueled core rocket with two large solid-fueled rocket boosters strapped to either side. This is the sixth Ariane 5 to fly in program history and the second to fly this year. "This beautiful success is obviously a great source of happiness for us all," Jean-Marie Luton, Arianespace's chairman, said after the mission on Thursday. "It demonstrates that we have a new generation heavy lift launch vehicle with high performance and is perfectly operational."~Riding atop the giant booster were the SES Astra 2B and GE Americom GE-7 satellites. Both are communications satellites intended to provide television, voice, data and Internet relay services to their users on the ground.
Arianespace's sixth Ariane 5 rocket sits on its launch pad less than an hour before lifting off from South America. Image from Arianespace TV, used with permission.
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Together, the operators of the two satellites launched Thursday serve some 146 million customers in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Euorpe. Tonight's mission was delayed about two months because of concerns over the small steering thrusters used by the Ariane 5 rocket. Leaking thrusters on another rocket prompted Arianespace officials to remove, inspect and replace the thrusters intended for use on the Ariane 5 that launched tonight. The delay was made necessary by the fact that welds on the thrusters could not be inspected at the Kourou launch site and had to be returned to France to be checked out. Arianespace's next launch is targeted to fly in early October when an Ariane 4 will loft a Japanese satellite into space, Luton announced on Thursday.
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