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Tag: Ariane 5s

  • Preparations for Ariane 5s dual mission enters final phase

    Preparations for Ariane 5s dual mission enters final phase

    MUMBAI: Preparations for Arianespaces next Ariane 5 flight are entering their final phase as the missions dual-satellite payload is integrated at the Spaceport in French Guiana.

    For the upper element of the payload stack, Indias Insat-4A spacecraft has been encapsulated in its ogive-shaped Ariane 5 payload fairing, which will protect the satellite during the launchers initial ascent.

    It is the first in India’s new Insat-4 telecommunications spacecraft series that will provide coverage over the Indian subcontinent and carries a mixed payload of 12 Ku-band and 12 C-band transponders. All the 12 Ku Band transponders have been leased out to the new Tata-Sky joint venture for DTH.

    Produced by Switzerlands Contraves, the fairing carries noise suppression pads on its interior walls and is to be jettisoned at an altitude of approximately 100 km.

    In parallel action at the Spaceport; the European MSG-2 meteorological spacecraft has been installed atop the Ariane 5. This places the spin-stabilised MSG-2 platform in the lower payload position on Ariane 5.

    Liftoff of the Ariane 5 with Insat-4A and MSG-2 is set during a launch window that opens at 7:33 pm local time at the Spaceport and continues through 8:01 pm on 21 December (India time 4:03 am to 4:31 am on 22 December).

  • Inquiry into Ariane 5’s launch failure starts 16 Dec

    Inquiry into Ariane 5’s launch failure starts 16 Dec

    KOUROU: The independent inquiry board that will determine the causes of Flight 157’s launch failure will begin its work on 16 December 2002. The attempted first flight of the Ariane 5-ESCA which took place on 11 December was designed to catapult 10 tonnes of payload into orbit and place Western Europe in toe-to-toe combat with the US for domination of the satellite launch market.

    The board has the task of determining the source of in-flight problems on the first mission of the “10-ton” Ariane 5, and to assess what effect this failure will have on the flights of the basic Ariane 5 launcher version.

    In an official statement, Arianespace claimed that the rocket had veered off-course at a height of 120 kilometres, which prompted the mission control to push the self-destruct button.The remains of the rocket and the two satellites it was carrying – – – Hotbird 7 for Eutelsat, and Stentor, an experimental communications satellite for the French space research institute CNES – – – tumbled into the Atlantic. Approximately three minutes after lift-off, an anomaly occurred, thus ending the flight 157 mission.

    However, according to the official statement, Arianespace’s next mission – – – an Ariane 4 launch with the New Skies Satellites’ NSS-6 telecommunications spacecraft – – – remains on schedule for a 17 December liftoff.

    The reports also indicated that Arianespace was simlutaneously continuing with the preparations for the upcoming Ariane 5 mission. The mission will use a basic Ariane 5 launcher to place Europe’s Rosetta scientific spacecraft on a deep-space trajectory to rendezvous with a comet. This scheduled to take place on 12 January.