KOUROU, French Guiana - An Ariane 5 has lifted off from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana and delivered two telecom satellites into their planned orbits. Launch of flight VA222 occurred on April 26 at 5:00 p.m. local time (4:00 p.m. EDT; 10:00 p.m. GMT).
Thor-7, with a mass of about 4,590 kg and mounted in the upper position atop Ariane's Sylda dual-payload carrier, was the first to be released about 28 minutes into the mission. Following a series of burns controlled by Ariane's computer, the Sylda structure encasing the 4,365 kg Sicral-2 was then jettisoned. Sicral-2 was released into its own transfer orbit about six minutes after the first satellite.
Thor-7, operated by Norway's Telenor Satellite Broadcasting AS, will be positioned at 0.8°W in geostationary orbit to deliver high-performance Ka-band communications for the maritime sector. Thor-7 also has a Ku-band payload for broadcast and television services in Central and Eastern Europe. The satellite has a design life of about 15 years.
Sicral-2, operated by Italy's Telespazio, will be positioned in geostationary orbit to provide strategic and tactical telecommunications links for French and Italian military forces, as well as reserve capacity for other NATO nations. It has a design life of 15 years.
The payload mass for this launch was 9,970 kg. The satellites totaled 8,955 kg, with payload adapters and carrying structures making up the rest.
Arianespace continues to be one of the major global launch providers. The company's stable of three launch vehicles enables it to carry a range of payloads while meeting various price points. Still, the company will continue to evolve going forward. The major development will be the introduction of the Ariane 6, which will be a more flexible launch vehicle and could replace both the Ariane 5 and Soyuz.
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