CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Increasing its worldwide reputation for reliability as a heavy-lift space booster, an Ariane 5 rocket lofted a quartet of satellites into Earth orbit after launching Wednesday night from the edge of the Amazon jungle in South America.
An Ariane 5 rocket lifts off from the Guiana Space Center carrying a quartet of satellites into orbit. Arianespace image used with permission.
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Liftoff from the Guiana Space Center near Kourou, French Guiana, was at 8:07 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (01:07 GMT, Nov. 16), one day later than planned because of a minor problem with some ground support equipment at the launch pad that was quickly repaired.
With its twin solid-fuel rocket boosters responsible for most of the initial lifting power of the giant rocket, the commercial Ariane 5's brilliant exhaust plume could be seen for miles along the Atlantic coast as it climbed toward space on an easterly path.
Quickly zooming out of sight, the satellite-delivery mission was successfully completed 42 minutes later after all of its cargo had separated from the rocket's upper stage.Wednesday's launch marked the fourth commercial mission for Ariane 5 since the first of this next evolution of the Ariane family of rockets was launched in 1997. The Ariane 5 directly competes with the U.S. Atlas and Russian Proton rockets marketed by International Launch Services.
It was also Arianespace's 10th flight for the year, with three more missions still targeted to fly by the end of 2000, including an Ariane 4 launch scheduled for Monday.
Flying on Wednesday aboard the European-built launcher was a high-powered communications satellite, an international amateur-radio satellite and a pair of small British research spacecraft.
Another view of the Ariane 5 as it climbs away from its South American launch pad. Arianespace image used with permission.
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Weighing more than 10,000 pounds (4,536 kilograms), the principal payload on this flight was PAS-1R, a high-powered communications satellite built by Boeing Satellite Systems for PanAmSat that will serve customers in North and South America, Europe and Africa.
The satellite has 72 transponders, twice the capacity of PAS-1, which this satellite will replace. PAS-1 was launched on the inaugural voyage of the Ariane 4 rocket in June 1988.
Once operational, PAS-1R will offer a broad range of services to customers that include ImpSat, Cisneros Television Group, CTC Mundo, Telefnica Data Colombia, Citibank, Reuters, Zona Franca Montevideo, Latinet, Suratel, Vitacom and Galaxy Latin America.
Although smaller and less powerful, a no-less-interesting satellite sent into space on Wednesday was AMSAT P3-D, the largest amateur-radio satellite ever built. Ham radio operators in North America, Europe and Asia will use the satellite's five receivers and eight transmitters to bounce their radio signals around the globe.
Rounding out the spacecraft orbited by Arianespace on Wednesday were a pair of tiny Space Technology Research Vehicles built and operated by Great Britain's Defense Evaluation and Research Agency to test new communications technology.
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