{"id":15077,"date":"2016-11-16T22:56:30","date_gmt":"2016-11-16T14:56:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/photos-ariane-5s-trek-to-the-launch-pad-for-galileo-launch\/"},"modified":"2016-11-16T22:56:30","modified_gmt":"2016-11-16T14:56:30","slug":"photos-ariane-5s-trek-to-the-launch-pad-for-galileo-launch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/photos-ariane-5s-trek-to-the-launch-pad-for-galileo-launch\/","title":{"rendered":"Photos: Ariane 5\u2019s trek to the launch pad for Galileo launch"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Ariane 5 rocket rolled out to its tropical launch pad in French Guiana this week leading up to  Thursday\u2019s launch of four Galileo navigation satellites for the European Commission.<\/p>\n

The 165-foot-tall (50-meter) rocket make the 1.7-mile (2.7-kilometer) trip to the ELA-3 launch zone Tuesday mounted on a mobile launch platform. Four satellites for Europe\u2019s Galileo navigation network are bolted on top of the rocket for liftoff Thursday at 1306 GMT (8:06 a.m. EST; 10:06 a.m. French Guiana time).<\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s launch is the first Ariane 5 flight in support of the Galileo program, which aims to field an independent navigation network alongside the U.S. military\u2019s GPS constellation, Russia\u2019s Glonass system and China\u2019s Beidou fleet.<\/p>\n

The Ariane 5 ES rocket slated to launch the Galileo satellites is modified specifically to loft the European navigation payloads. Besides the dispenser built to hold the Galileo satellites, it has a restartable Aestus upper stage engine, a shortened payload fairing, and a lighter version of the Ariane 5\u2019s vehicle equipment bay, a structure that houses much of the rocket\u2019s guidance system.<\/p>\n

The photos below show the Ariane 5 emerging from the final assembly building at the Guiana Space Center and making the trip to the launch pad.<\/p>\n

Read our launch preview for more information on the mission.<\/p>\n

\"Credit:
Credit: ESA\/CNES\/Arianespace \u2013 Photo Optique Video du CSG \u2013 S. Martin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Credit:
Credit: ESA\u2013Stephane Corvaja, 2016<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Credit:
Credit: ESA\/CNES\/Arianespace \u2013 Photo Optique Video du CSG \u2013 S. Martin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Credit:
Credit: ESA\/CNES\/Arianespace \u2013 Photo Optique Video du CSG \u2013 S. Martin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Credit:
Credit: ESA\/CNES\/Arianespace \u2013 Photo Optique Video du CSG \u2013 S. Martin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Credit:
Credit: ESA\u2013Stephane Corvaja, 2016<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Credit:
Credit: ESA\/CNES\/Arianespace \u2013 Photo Optique Video du CSG \u2013 S. Martin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Credit:
Credit: ESA\u2013Stephane Corvaja, 2016<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Credit:
Credit: ESA\/CNES\/Arianespace \u2013 Photo Optique Video du CSG \u2013 S. Martin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Credit:
Credit: ESA\/CNES\/Arianespace \u2013 Photo Optique Video du CSG \u2013 S. Martin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Credit:
Credit: ESA\u2013Stephane Corvaja, 2016<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Credit:
Credit: ESA\u2013Stephane Corvaja, 2016<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Credit:
Credit: ESA\u2013Stephane Corvaja, 2016<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Credit:
Credit: ESA\u2013Stephane Corvaja, 2016<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Credit:
Credit: ESA\u2013Stephane Corvaja, 2016<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Credit:
Credit: ESA\u2013Stephane Corvaja, 2016<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Credit:
Credit: ESA\u2013Stephane Corvaja, 2016<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Credit:
Credit: ESA\u2013Stephane Corvaja, 2016<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Credit:
Credit: ESA\u2013Stephane Corvaja, 2016<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Credit:
Credit: ESA\/CNES\/Arianespace \u2013 Photo Optique Video du CSG \u2013 S. Martin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Credit:
Credit: ESA\u2013Stephane Corvaja, 2016<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Credit:
Credit: ESA\u2013Stephane Corvaja, 2016<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An Ariane 5 rocket rolled out to its tropical launch pad in French Guiana this week leading up to  Thursday\u2019s launch of four Galileo navigation satellites for the European Commission. The 165-foot-tall (50-meter) rocket make the 1.7-mile (2.7-kilometer) trip to the ELA-3 launch zone Tuesday mounted on a mobile launch platform. Four satellites for Europe\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1657,3262,1540,498,1060,831,1397,1773],"class_list":["post-15077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-airbus-defense-and-space","tag-airbus-safran-launchers","tag-ariane-5","tag-arianespace","tag-european-commission","tag-european-space-agency","tag-galileo","tag-guiana-space-center"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15077"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15077\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}