{"id":16119,"date":"2015-08-19T17:56:53","date_gmt":"2015-08-19T09:56:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/ariane-5-rolled-out-for-fourth-launch-of-the-year\/"},"modified":"2015-08-19T17:56:53","modified_gmt":"2015-08-19T09:56:53","slug":"ariane-5-rolled-out-for-fourth-launch-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/ariane-5-rolled-out-for-fourth-launch-of-the-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Ariane 5 rolled out for fourth launch of the year"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"An
An Ariane 5 rocket reaches the ELA-3 launch zone in Kourou, French Guiana, during rollout Wednesday. Credit: ESA\/CNES\/Arianespace \u2013 Optique Video du CSG \u2013 JM Guillon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ground crews towed a towering Ariane 5 rocket to its launch pad in French Guiana on Wednesday for final flight preparations before Thursday\u2019s launch with spacecraft for two of the world\u2019s top commercial satellite operators.<\/p>\n

The rocket made the trip from the Guiana Space Center\u2019s final assembly building to the ELA-3 launch zone Wednesday morning. Technicians planned to connect the heavy-duty launcher with the pad\u2019s electrical, communications and propellant systems later Wednesday before commencing the final countdown before dawn Thursday.<\/p>\n

Standing 18 stories tall and pulled by a 540-horsepower Titan tug with high-precision steering, the Ariane 5 and its mobile launch platform rode rail tracks for the 1.7-mile journey from the final assembly building to the launch pad.<\/p>\n

The Ariane 5\u2019s launch window opens at 2010 GMT (4:10 p.m. EDT) and extends to 2156 GMT (5:56 p.m. EDT).<\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s launch marks the 81st flight of an Ariane 5 rocket and the 225th launch in the history of the Ariane family dating back to 1979. It is the fourth Ariane 5 launch this year.<\/p>\n

Two communications satellites are packaged inside the Ariane 5\u2019s nose cone for Eutelsat and Intelsat.<\/p>\n

\"The
The 179-foot-tall Ariane 5 rocket prepares to depart the final assembly building at the Guiana Space Center. Credit: ESA\/CNES\/Arianespace \u2013 Optique Video du CSG \u2013 JM Guillon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The larger of the two payloads, Eutelsat 8 West B, sits in the upper position of the Ariane 5\u2019s dual-satellite stack and will separate about 28 minutes after liftoff. The smaller Intelsat 34 communications satellite rides in the lower berth and deploys nearly 42 minutes into the mission.<\/p>\n

The Ariane 5 will drop off the spacecraft into an egg-shaped geosynchronous transfer orbit, then the satellites will power up on-board rocket thrusters to circularize their orbits 22,300 miles above the equator in the coming days.<\/p>\n

Eutelsat 8 West B weighs 12,747 pounds \u2014 nearly 5.8 metric tons \u2014 with a full tank of propellant at launch. Built by Thales Alenia Space, the satellite will be positioned in geosynchronous orbit at 8 degrees west longitude for a design life of at least 15 years.<\/p>\n

Eutelsat plans to use the new satellite to broadcast high-definition television and Ultra HD services to the Middle East and North Africa with an on-board complement of 40 Ku-band transponders. Another 10 C-band transponders will provide other telecommunications connectivity to customers in Africa and South America, according to Eutelsat.<\/p>\n

\"Technicians
Technicians lower the Ariane 5\u2019s payload fairing over the Intelsat 34 satellite during the build-up for Thursday\u2019s launch. The Eutelsat 8 West B spacecraft was previously encapsulated inside the fairing in the upper position of the dual-payload berth. Credit: ESA\/CNES\/Arianespace \u2013 Optique Video du CSG \u2013 G. Barbaste<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Intelsat 34 spacecraft, made in California by Space Systems\/Loral, is a multi-purpose telecom platform.<\/p>\n

Designed for a geosynchronous slot at 55.5 degrees west, Intelsat 34 will broadcast direct-to-home television signals to Brazil and distribute video services across Latin America for major programmers such as Fox and HBO. It will beam Internet connectivity to airliners and ships traveling the North Atlantic, helping travelers stay connected on the go.<\/p>\n

With a launch weight of 7,725 pounds, or 3.3 metric tons, Intelsat 34 is designed for a 15-year lifetime. It replaces the Intelsat 805 and Galaxy 11 satellites launched in 1998 and 1999 by Atlas 2AS and Ariane 4 rockets \u2014 the last two craft in Intelsat\u2019s fleet launched before 2000.<\/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 reaches the ELA-3 launch zone in Kourou, French Guiana, during rollout Wednesday. Credit: ESA\/CNES\/Arianespace \u2013 Optique Video du CSG \u2013 JM Guillon Ground crews towed a towering Ariane 5 rocket to its launch pad in French Guiana on Wednesday for final flight preparations before Thursday\u2019s launch with spacecraft for two of […]<\/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":[1540,498,1424,3978,1773,1255,3979,2897],"class_list":["post-16119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-ariane-5","tag-arianespace","tag-eutelsat","tag-eutelsat-8-west-b","tag-guiana-space-center","tag-intelsat","tag-intelsat-34","tag-space-systems-loral"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16119"}],"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=16119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16119\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}