Ariane launches communications, weather satellites
Posted: Fri, Jul 6, 2012, 10:36 AM ET (1436 GMT)
An Ariane 5 rocket launched a commercial communications satellite and a European weather satellite on Thursday evening. The Ariane 5 ECA lifted off from Kourou, French Guiana, at 5:36 pm EDT (2136 GMT) carrying the EchoStar 17 and MSG-3 satellites, releasing both into geosynchronous transfer orbits about a half-hour later. EchoStar 17, build by Space Systems/Loral for EchoStar subsidiary Hughes, weighed 6,100 kilograms at liftoff and carries a Ka-band payload to provide broadband Internet services to customers in North America from 107.1 degrees west in GEO. The satellite is based on the same model as Intelsat-19, which suffered a solar array deployment problem shortly after launch last month; Space Systems/Loral reported the array deployment for EchoStar 17 went smoothly. MSG-3, but by Thales Alenia Space for European meteorological agency Eumetsat, weighed just over 2,000 kilograms at launch. It will provides meteorological data from GEO to support weather forecasting for Europe.
An Ariane 5 rocket launched a commercial communications satellite and a European weather satellite on Thursday evening. The Ariane 5 ECA lifted off from Kourou, French Guiana, at 5:36 pm EDT (2136 GMT) carrying the EchoStar 17 and MSG-3 satellites, releasing both into geosynchronous transfer orbits about a half-hour later. EchoStar 17, build by Space Systems/Loral for EchoStar subsidiary Hughes, weighed 6,100 kilograms at liftoff and carries a Ka-band payload to provide broadband Internet services to customers in North America from 107.1 degrees west in GEO. The satellite is based on the same model as Intelsat-19, which suffered a solar array deployment problem shortly after launch last month; Space Systems/Loral reported the array deployment for EchoStar 17 went smoothly. MSG-3, but by Thales Alenia Space for European meteorological agency Eumetsat, weighed just over 2,000 kilograms at launch. It will provides meteorological data from GEO to support weather forecasting for Europe.
Related Links:
| <<previous article | next article>> |
|
news in brief
|
|
|
|
news links
|
|
Sunday, March 1
France, Cyprus and Greece Partner to Develop Next-Generation Satellite Optical Communications Technologies
Thales Alenia Space — 12:17 pm ET (1717 GMT) SDA Makes HALO Europa Award
Space Development Agency — 11:27 am ET (1627 GMT) Rogue Signs Satlyt to OTP-2 and 2B Missions to Demonstrate On-Orbit AI, Edge Computing, and In-Space Data Centers
Rogue Space Systems — 11:27 am ET (1627 GMT) Sceye Unveils First-of-Its-Kind Stratospheric Telecom Antenna, SceyeCELL, to Bridge the Gap Between Ground Towers and Satellites
Sceye — 11:24 am ET (1624 GMT) Young "Sun" Caught Blowing Bubbles by NASA's Chandra
Chandra X-Ray Observatory Center — 11:22 am ET (1622 GMT) |
