Launched With Dual Payload From French Guiana Saturday

An Ariane 5 rocket orbited a pair of payloads – ASTRA 5B for SES and HISPASAT’S Amazonas 4A – Saturday evening, continuing the relationships with two customers that have come to rely on Arianespace’s launch services.

Lifting off from the Spaceport in French Guiana, Flight VA216 delivered the two satellites to geostationary transfer orbits.  It was one of multiple launch campaigns currently underway for Arianespace missions. ASTRA 5B was deployed by Ariane 5 at 27 minutes into the mission, with Amazonas 4A separated from the launcher at 34 minutes after liftoff.
 
This was Ariane 5’s second flight in 2014, and the 73rd overall launch of the vehicle – continuing its on-target track record with the 59th consecutive success.  The mission was designated Flight VA216 in Arianespace’s launcher family numbering system.

Chairman and CEO Stéphane Israël noted that ASTRA 5B was the SES group’s 39th satellite to use Arianespace launchers in the framework of a 25-year-long cooperation that started in December 1988 with the launch of ASTRA 1A.  SES operates the leading direct-to-home (DTH) satellite broadcast system in Europe based on its ASTRA family of satellites, serving more than 135 million households via cable and DTH networks.
 
ASTRA 5B was produced by Airbus Defense and Space using a Eurostar 3000 L platform.  It is fitted with 40 active Ku-band and 6 Ka-band transponders, and will be positioned at 31.5 degrees East. Also aboard ASTRA 5B is an L-band payload for the European geostationary navigation overlay system, EGNOS. Amazonas 4A was the eighth satellite launched by Arianespace for Spain, and the sixth for HISPASAT.  It is part of the Amazonas relay platform series that is expanding HISPASAT’s business over South America.
 
“I am happy that, tonight, we have been up to the trust HISPASAT placed in our service, and I wish Amazonas 4A a safe journey to its final destination,” Israël said in comments from the Spaceport’s mission control center.  “I have no doubt it will be there on spot to broadcast worldwide the images of La Roja’s victory in the upcoming FIFA World Cup in Brazil!”
 
As the 25th Orbital Sciences Corporation-built satellite launched by Arianespace, Amazonas 4A is based on a GEOStar-2.4 platform.  This high-power satellite’s 24 active Ku-band transponders will provide a broad range of telecommunications services across all of South America, and has a design life of 15 years.
 
After the most recent Ariane 5 success, Arianespace’s next mission continues in preparation at the Spaceport: Soyuz Flight VS07, scheduled for liftoff on April 3 with Europe’s Sentinel-1A Earth observation spacecraft.
 
Also being readied are Vega Flight VV03 with the European-built DZZ-HR multi-mission satellite for Kazakhstan, and Ariane 5 Flight VA218 with the Optus 10 and MEASAT-3b satellite passengers.  The European Space Agency’s Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) Georges Lemaître is at the Spaceport undergoing checkout in advance of Ariane 5's VA219 mission for servicing of the International Space Station, with its launcher now at the Spaceport as well.
 
Israël highlighted how Arianespace’s fast-paced 2014 launch schedule results from the capabilities of its industrial team – led by Airbus Defence and Space for Ariane 5, Roscosmos for Soyuz and ELV for Vega; and also acknowledged the key role of France’s CNES space agency and the European Space Agency (ESA).

FMI: www.arianespace.com