Ariane 5 Lofts Two Satellites
An Ariane 5 rocket roared from the European Spaceport in French Guiana on Friday, carrying two satellites into geostationary transfer orbits. The liftoff occurred at 2229 UTC (6:29 pm EDT), after a one day delay because of high-altitude winds. The satellites were released into their transfer orbits 30 minutes after launch.
The first satellite is the ASTRA 1L, which will join a dozen spacecraft in the SES ASTRA constellation. They provide television broadcast and data communications services to 109 million households in Europe.
The second satellite is the Galaxy 17 broadcast satellite, built by Thales Alenia Space, and launched for Intelsat. It became Intelsat’s 45th satellite launched aboard an Ariane rocket. Galaxy 17 will park above 74 degrees West above the equator, and provide broadcast services to North America.
This is the second Ariane 5 launch of the year; 4 more are planned.
Original Source: ESA News Release
Recent Posts
Astronomers Will Get Gravitational Wave Alerts Within 30 Seconds
Any event in the cosmos generates gravitational waves, the bigger the event, the more disturbance.…
Next Generation Ion Engines Will Be Extremely Powerful
During the Space Race, scientists in both the United States and the Soviet Union investigated…
Neutron Stars Could be Capturing Primordial Black Holes
The Milky Way has a missing pulsar problem in its core. Astronomers have tried to…
Japan’s Lunar Lander Survives its Third Lunar Night
Space travel and exploration was never going to be easy. Failures are sadly all too…
Black Holes Can Halt Star Formation in Massive Galaxies
It’s difficult to actually visualise a universe that is changing. Things tend to happen at…
Mapping the Milky Way’s Magnetic Field in 3D
We are all very familiar with the concept of the Earth’s magnetic field. It turns…