Ariane 5 v193 was a daytime launch last December
Arianespace’s upcoming dual payload flight has been rescheduled to the evening of Friday, April 9 following additional checks performed on the launch vehicle at Europe’s Spaceport. The spacecraft will take the Astra 3B and ComsatBw-2 satellites into space.
Ariane Flight V194 was originally scheduled for launch on March 24 from the Kourou launch site in French Guiana, but was subsequently put back to Friday, March 26. Then, another delay was announced due to an anomaly that occurred in a launcher subsystem.
This Thursday, the Ariane 5 – together with its Astra 3B and ComsatBw-2 payload – will be transferred from the Final Assembly Building to the ELA-3 launch complex.
The final countdown will then begin, with liftoff planned on April 9 at the start of a 49 minute launch window that opens at 18:59 local time in French Guiana. This is the 50th flight of Ariane 5.
The launch can be followed live on the Arianespace website, where now a short video can be seen.
Astra 3B will be located at 23.5 degrees East, Astra’s orbital position for delivering Direct-to-Home broadcast services mainly to the Benelux and Eastern Europe as well as two-way broadband services across Europe and the Middle East.
