Ariane 5 provided another record payload lift performance during its year-opening dual-passenger flight on Thursday evening, February 7 from the Spaceport in French Guiana.
Thursday’s launch orbited the Amazonas 3 and Azerspace/Africasat-1a telecommunications satellites, delivering a total calculated mass into geostationary transfer orbit of 10,317 kg – that included 9,503 k. for the two spacecraft, along with the dispenser system and integration hardware in Ariane 5’s dual payload “stack.”
“This performance demonstrates once again the pertinence of our improvement policy, which enables us to augment the capacity of our launcher, all while maintaining its reliability,” said Arianespace Chairman and CEO Jean-Yves Le Gall in post-launch comments at the Spaceport.
Le Gall noted that the smooth countdown to Ariane 5’s liftoff at 18.36 local time in French Guiana highlights the competence and maturity of Arianespace’s launch teams, which are trained to oversee operations with the company’s launcher family trio.
Ariane 5 deployed its Amazonas 3 and Azerspace/Africasat-1a passengers on a mission lasting just under 37 minutes.
Riding in the upper position of Ariane 5’s payload “stack,” Amazonas 3 was released first during the flight. This satellite for the Hispasat Group was produced by Space Systems/Loral in Palo Alto, California, and is to operate from a 61 degrees West longitude orbital slot.
Equipped with 33 Ku-band and 19 C-band transponders, along with nine Ka-band spot beams, Amazonas 3 will provide telecommunications relay services that include direct-to-home television (DTH), corporate fixed and mobile telephone networks, and broadband capacity with coverage across the Americas, Europe, and North Africa.
Azerspace/Africasat-1a was then separated from Ariane 5, starting the career for the first-ever national Azerbaijan satellite launched by Arianespace. It was produced by Orbital Sciences Corporation in Dulles, Virginia, under contract to the Republic of Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies for the country’s national satellite operator, Azercosmos. The platform has 24 C-band transponders and 12 Ku-band transponders to deliver communications coverage over Azerbaijan, Central Asia, Europe and Africa from an orbital location of 46 degrees East longitude.
