Paris (AFP)

After three postponements, the Ariane 5 rocket was able to take off on Saturday from Kourou, in French Guiana, and put two telecommunications satellites and a refueler into orbit, according to a broadcast on the Arianespace site.

"As part of this mission, three satellites were loaded on board the most efficient Ariane 5 rocket ever launched, thus demonstrating the competitiveness of our launch solutions and our ability to continuously innovate", says Stéphane Israël, President. Arianespace executive in a press release.

For this flight, Ariane 5's carrying capacity has been increased by 85 kg.

The European heavy launcher tore off the ground at 7:04 p.m. Kourou time (i.e. 12:04 a.m. Paris time on the night of August 15 to 16) for a mission of about 48 minutes, from takeoff until the separation of the satellites .

The launch, initially scheduled for July 28, was first postponed "in order to carry out additional technical inspections", then again because "of an abnormal behavior of a probe in the liquid hydrogen tank of the cryogenic main stage ". And a third time, Thursday, for "unfavorable wind conditions at altitude".

Arianespace is signing its first launch since the freezing of European spaceport activities decreed in mid-March by the National Center for Space Studies (CNES) due to the Covid-19.

A European Vega rocket was to take off in mid-June but the launch had to be postponed several times due to particularly unfavorable weather conditions. Its launch is now scheduled for September 1, Stéphane Israël announced on Saturday.

Ariane 5 takes with it two telecommunications satellites (Galaxy 30 and BSAT-4b) for the benefit of the operators Intelsat and B-SAT and a satellite maintenance vehicle (MEV-2) for SpaceLogistics LLC which must dock with another device already in orbit (Intelsat 10-02).

"Once docked, it will control the orbit of the client satellite using its own thrusters. After its mission for Intelsat 10-02, MEV-2 will undock and be available for another client's vehicle," Arianespace had specified, for which this is the first launch of a satellite maintenance vehicle.

This launch was the 109th of Ariane 5, the third of Ariane 5 in 2020 and the third of the year at the Guiana Space Center (CSG), reminds the Cnes.

© 2020 AFP