{"id":15288,"date":"2016-08-23T18:14:40","date_gmt":"2016-08-23T10:14:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/photos-european-rocket-treks-to-launch-pad-with-u-s-satellites\/"},"modified":"2016-08-23T18:14:40","modified_gmt":"2016-08-23T10:14:40","slug":"photos-european-rocket-treks-to-launch-pad-with-u-s-satellites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/photos-european-rocket-treks-to-launch-pad-with-u-s-satellites\/","title":{"rendered":"Photos: European rocket treks to launch pad with U.S. satellites"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two U.S.-built commercial communications satellites moved to their last stop on Earth on Tuesday, when an Ariane 5 rocket rolled out to a launch pad at the edge of the Amazon jungle on the eve of liftoff.<\/p>\n

The 180-foot-tall (55-meter) launcher emerged from its final assembly building at French-run Guiana Space Center around 10:30 a.m. local time (9:30 a.m. EDT; 1330 GMT). Mounted on a mobile launch platform, the Ariane 5 completed the 1.7-mile (2.7-kilometer) trip to the ELA-3 launch zone about one hour later.<\/p>\n

Once the rocket arrived at the pad, technicians connected the launch table to the ground power supply and propellant lines that will feed fuel into the two-stage Ariane 5 during Wednesday\u2019s countdown.<\/p>\n

Liftoff with the Intelsat 33e and Intelsat 36 communications satellites is set for 6:55 p.m. local time (5:55 p.m. EDT; 2155 GMT) Wednesday. The launch window extends for 45 minutes.<\/p>\n

Spaceflight Now covered the Ariane 5\u2019s rollout at the Guiana Space Center, and these images show the Ariane 5 \u2014 comprised of two hydrogen-fueled core stages and twin solid rocket boosters \u2014 trekking through the tropical savanna during Tuesday\u2019s hour-long rollout. The rocket crossed over the main roadway leading through the Guiana Space Center, then headed for the ELA-3 launch pad, arriving there around 11:30 a.m. local time (10:30 a.m. EDT; 1430 GMT).<\/p>\n

Wednesday\u2019s launch will be the fourth Ariane 5 flight of the year, and the 87th Ariane 5 mission since the European launcher debuted in 1996. It will also mark Arianespace\u2019s sixth flight of 2016, and 278th mission since 1979.<\/p>\n

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Photo credit: Stephen Clark\/Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Photo credit: Stephen Clark\/Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Photo credit: Stephen Clark\/Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Photo credit: Stephen Clark\/Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Photo credit: Stephen Clark\/Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Photo credit: Stephen Clark\/Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Photo credit: Stephen Clark\/Spaceflight Now<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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

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

Two U.S.-built commercial communications satellites moved to their last stop on Earth on Tuesday, when an Ariane 5 rocket rolled out to a launch pad at the edge of the Amazon jungle on the eve of liftoff. The 180-foot-tall (55-meter) launcher emerged from its final assembly building at French-run Guiana Space Center around 10:30 a.m. […]<\/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":[1540,498,670,1773,1255,3433,3618,2897],"class_list":["post-15288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-ariane-5","tag-arianespace","tag-boeing","tag-guiana-space-center","tag-intelsat","tag-intelsat-33e","tag-intelsat-36","tag-space-systems-loral"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15288"}],"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=15288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15288\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}