spacetoday.net: Ariane 5 launches three satellites

Posted: Sun, Sep 28, 2003, 12:26 PM ET (1626 GMT)
Ariane 5 launch on Flight 145 (ESA)

An Ariane 5 booster successfully launched three spacecraft, including Europe's first lunar mission, Saturday night. The Ariane 5G lifted off From Kourou, French Guiana, at 7:14 pm EDT (2314 GMT) and successfully placed its payload of three satellites into geosynchronous transfer orbit. The two large payloads on the Ariane 5 were INSAT-3E, an Indian communications satellite; and eBird, a communications satellite for Eutelsat. INSAT-3E carried 36 C-band transponders and will operate from 55 degrees east, while eBird, a Boeing 376 with 20 Ku-band transponders, will provide data transmission services from 33 degrees east. The smallest, but arguably best-known, payload on the launcher was SMART-1, a small planetary science and technology demonstration satellite built by the Swedish Space Corporation for ESA. SMART-1 will use its ion engines to gradually move from GTO, arriving in lunar orbit by March 2005. Once there cameras and spectrometers on the spacecraft will image the lunar surface and also attempt to confirm previous discoveries of water ice in the permanently shadowed regions of polar craters. The launch was the third this year of the Ariane 5.