Arab Satellite Communications Organization (Arabsat) has announced that the launch of its new Arabsat 5A satellite will take place on June 23, 2010 at 21:42 GMT by Arianespace on top of a Ariane-5 launch vehicle.
The launcher for this mission currently is in the Spaceport’s Final Assembly Building, where it is awaiting the integration of its Arabsat-5A and COMS dual-satellite payload. This flight is scheduled for June 23 and will mark the second flight of an Ariane 5 in 2010.
Khalid bin Ahmed Balkheyour, president and CEO of Arabsat, said in a statement: “Arabsat-5A multi-mission satellite will provide additional capacity at 30.5 degrees East for a large range of satellite communications services such as television backhauling and broadcasting, telephony, business communications, Internet trunking and the provision of VSAT and other interactive services, over the whole continent of Africa, Central Asia and Middle East (MENA) region”.
The Arabsat-5A satellite model is based on the Eurostar E3000, manufactured by Astrium and Thales Alenia Space. The launch event will be broadcast live on the Arabsat Promotional channel on the following frequencies: Badr – 4: 11,996 H and on Badr – 6: 11,747 V. The launch can also be seen on the Arianespace website’s Video Corner, which can be accessed here.
This is the second Arabsat launch this month. On June 3, the BADR-5 satellite has been successfully placed into geosynchronous transfer orbit by International Launch Services (ILS) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.