Tue, Nov 22, 2016
Heavy-Lift Booster Notches 75th Consecutive Successful Launch
Ariane 5’s first flight at the service of Galileo has doubled Arianespace’s ability to orbit satellites for the European navigation system, while also marking the heavy-lift launcher’s 75 consecutive success.
With a precise on-time liftoff late last week from the Spaceport in French Guiana, the Ariane 5 ES launch vehicle delivered its quartet of passengers into medium-Earth circular orbit at the completion of a mission lasting 3 hours, 55 minutes.
They will join 14 Galileo in-orbit validation and full operational capability spacecraft previously launched in pairs by Arianespace on seven medium-lift Soyuz missions from French Guiana, along with two other Soyuz flights from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with the system’s GIOVE-A and GIOVE-B experimental satellites.
The four spacecraft orbited in the most recent launch are called Antonianna, Lisa, Kimberley and Tijmen – named after children from Italy, Hungary, Malta and The Netherlands who won a European drawing contest. Their deployment was performed by a new payload dispenser system from Airbus Safran Launchers, which also is prime contractor for Ariane 5.
Arianespace Chairman and CEO Stéphane Israël said two more Ariane 5s will continue the pace in 2017 and 2018, leading to 26 Galileo satellites in orbit.
The mission was Arianespace’s ninth flight of 2016, continuing the momentum that has seen all three members of its launcher family in action this year. The other launches performed since January utilized five heavy-lift Ariane 5s, two medium-lift Soyuz vehicles and one lightweight Vega.
The next Arianespace mission is being readied for liftoff on December 5, using a Vega to orbit the GÖKTÜRK-1A Earth observation satellite for Turkey.
(Image provide with Arianespace news release)
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