Three weeks after an incident occurred during the launch of the European rocket Vega in French Guiana, Ariane 5 succeeded on Tuesday to place two telecommunications satellites, said ArianeGroup.
Ariane 5, launched from the Kourou Space Center in French Guiana, successfully completed on Tuesday its mission to launch two telecommunication satellites on behalf of the satellite telecommunications service provider Intelsat and the European Space Agency ( ESA) and Airbus. This shooting is the first in Kourou since the failure of the Vega on July 10 carrying an Earth observation satellite for the armed forces of the United Arab Emirates.
Two satellites with a takeoff weight of 9.8 tons
Ariane 5 took off at 16:30 local time (21H30 French time) with on board the two satellites with a take-off weight of 9.8 tons. For the "first time", Ariane 5 was "equipped with an upper stage whose liquid hydrogen and oxygen tanks were lengthened to increase their storage capacity," ArianeGroup said.
"This new payload capability is another step in our process of continuously improving the performance and therefore the competitiveness of Ariane 5," said André-Hubert Roussel, ArianeGroup's Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
And with a lifespan of more than 15 years
The Intelsat 39 telecommunication satellite is designed "to meet the needs of broadband network operators, video providers and government customers" from Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the Caribbean. Indian Ocean, said Arianespace. The life of Intelsat 39 is over 15 years.
EDRS-C will integrate the new European "SpaceDataHighway" network, which is akin to Arianespace's first "fiber optic" network of space. This satellite will intervene with the services of environmental surveillance and security, in case of disaster and crisis management. EDRS-C will have to relay the data collected by observation satellites "near-real-time" to Earth, "which takes several hours in normal times," the statement said. The life of the satellite is 15 years.
At the failed launch of Vega, a few minutes after takeoff, an anomaly had appeared, "resulting in the premature end of the mission and the destruction of the launcher," said July 12 the French space agency Cnes.