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<\/p>\nEurope\u2019s Ariane 5 rocket returned to action on September 7, deploying a high-power communications satellite for French operator Eutelsat. Liftoff from the Centre Spatial Guyanais in Kourou, French Guiana occurred on time at 6:45 PM local time (21:45 UTC) at the opening of an 86-minute launch window.<\/p>\n
Wednesday\u2019s launch deployed Eutelsat Konnect VHTS \u2014 or Very High Throughput Satellite \u2014 into a supersynchronous geostationary transfer orbit. This advanced communications satellite will provide space-based internet services to Eutelsat\u2019s European customers, including service to areas with poor terrestrial connectivity.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The satellite will also support in-flight internet access for airlines and unspecified communications services for the government of France.<\/p>\n
The Konnect VHTS satellite was built by Thales Alenia Space in partnership with the French space agency, CNES, and the European Space Agency. It is based on the Spacebus Neo platform, massing around 6,400 kilograms and measuring 8.8 meters in length. Konnect VHTS marks the largest communications satellite that Thales has built to date.<\/p>\n
The satellite incorporates an electric propulsion system which will initially be used to maneuver it from the deployment orbit onto its station in geostationary orbit. It will then use its thrusters to keep station over the course of its planned 15-year lifetime.<\/p>\n
Konnect VHTS has a Ka-band communications payload with reflectors up to 3.5 meters in diameter. It also features an advanced processor system that will be used to dynamically allocate the satellite\u2019s communications capacity.<\/p>\n
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Render of Eutelsat Konnect VHTS in orbit. (Credit: Thales Alenia Space)<\/p>\n
Eutelsat is primarily targeting its satellite internet offerings to fixed-location users. The Konnect VHTS satellite has an instantaneous transfer rate of 500 gigabits per second. However, geostationary satellites suffer from higher latency than low Earth orbit systems such as Starlink due to the extra time taken for signals to reach the satellite and be transmitted back to Earth.<\/p>\n
Geostationary satellites offer the advantage of allowing regional coverage with a single satellite and global coverage with a small fleet, compared to the constellations of dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of spacecraft needed for low Earth orbit systems. They also remain in the same position in the sky relative to a fixed user.<\/p>\n
The Eutelsat Konnect VHTS mission follows on from the launch of Eutelsat Konnect in 2020, with that satellite being used to offer broadband services to users in Europe and Africa.<\/p>\n
Arianespace launched the Konnect VHTS satellite for Eutelsat, continuing a partnership that began in 1983 with the launch of European Communications Satellite 1 (ECS-1) aboard the sixth Ariane 1 rocket. ECS-1 was the first satellite to be launched for the European Telecommunications Satellite Organisation \u2014 as Eutelsat was then named \u2014 which is an intergovernmental organization (IGO). Eutelsat\u2019s operations were privatized in 2001, though the IGO continues to provide oversight of its operations.<\/p>\n
The Eutelsat Konnect VHTS satellite was the 37th spacecraft that Arianespace has launched for Eutelsat. The mission used an Ariane 5 rocket, flying from the Centre Spatial Guyanais (CSG), or Guiana Space Centre, in Kourou, French Guiana.<\/p>\n
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Eutelsat Konnect VHTS is encapsulated before launch. (Credit: ESA\/CNES\/Arianespace)<\/p>\n
The Ariane 5, a workhorse of the European Space Agency and the commercial launch market for over two decades, is rapidly approaching retirement with only three launches remaining after this mission.<\/p>\n
First flown in June 1996, Ariane 5 was a clean-sheet replacement for the previous-generation Ariane 4, which had been an evolution of the preceding Ariane 1, 2, and 3 series. Ariane 5 has evolved over its many years of service, with the final launches using the Ariane 5ECA+ configuration, which offers an increase in payload capacity of almost 50% to geostationary transfer orbit compared to the original Ariane 5G.<\/p>\n
Wednesday\u2019s mission was designated VA258 and marked the 114th flight of the Ariane 5. Of those 114 missions, Ariane 5 completed 109 successfully with two failures and three partial failures \u2014 although most of the less-than-successful launches occurred early in its career. Both outright failures occurred on maiden flights: the first flight in 1996 was cut short by a guidance software error, and the debut of the upgraded Ariane 5ECA configuration in December 2002 suffered a first-stage engine failure.<\/p>\n
The only blemish on Ariane 5\u2019s record since 2002 was a partial failure in January 2018, when VA241 was launched on the wrong heading after the vehicle\u2019s inertial reference systems were aligned incorrectly prior to liftoff. This left the two satellites aboard VA241 in a more highly inclined orbit than had been planned, requiring them to use their own propulsion systems to correct the orbit. The rocket otherwise performed perfectly, but the anomaly ended a run of 82 successful launches. Since this incident, and prior to this mission\u2019s launch, a further 17 Ariane 5 missions have been conducted successfully.<\/p>\n
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Ariane 5 ahead of the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope in 2021. (Credit: Chris Gebhardt (photo) and Nathan Barker (edit) for NSF)<\/p>\n
Ariane 5 is a two-stage rocket, with a cryogenic-propellant first stage augmented by a pair of large solid rocket boosters. On the ECA and ECA+ models, Ariane 5 also uses a cryogenic second stage \u2014 with the ECA+ using a version that is stretched slightly compared to the ECA \u2014 instead of the hypergolic-propellant upper stage flown on earlier versions of the rocket.<\/p>\n
Eutelsat Konnect VHTS sat encapsulated within the rocket\u2019s payload fairing, atop the second stage.<\/p>\n
Wednesday\u2019s mission made use of an Ariane 5ECA, as will all three future missions of the rocket.<\/p>\n
The launch was a rare single-satellite mission for Ariane 5, with the majority of its geostationary launches carrying pairs of satellites stacked using a special adaptor known as the SYLDA. The last time Ariane 5 launched a single satellite to geostationary orbit before this mission was March 2016, when an Ariane 5ECA carried another Eutelsat spacecraft \u2014 Eutelsat 65 West A \u2014 into orbit.<\/p>\n
In preparation for its launch, Eutelsat Konnect VHTS left Thales Alenia Space\u2019s facility in Cannes, France, on July 18th. Two days later, it set sail aboard the cargo ship MN Colibri. The launch campaign began in Kourou on August 2nd, when work to assemble the Ariane 5 rocket commenced in the Launcher Integration Building, or BIL.<\/p>\n
On the same day, the Colibri docked in the port of Pariacabo, southeast of the launch site, to deliver its cargo. After being moved to a cleanroom, fueling of the satellite took place between August 16th and 17th. On August 18th, Ariane was moved from the BIL to the Final Integration Building, or BAF.<\/p>\n