Posted: Wed, May 16 7:03 AM ET (1103 GMT)
An Ariane 5 rocket successfully launched a pair of Lockheed Martin-built communications satellites for Japan and Vietnam on Tuesday evening. The Ariane 5 ECA lifted off from Kourou, French Guiana, at 6:13 pm EDT (2213 GMT) Tuesday and placed the JCSAT-13 and Vinasat-2 communications satellites into geosynchronous transfer orbit about a half-hour later. JCSAT-13, a Lockheed Martin A2100AX model satellite, weighed 4,528 kilograms at launch and carried 44 Ku-band transponders. It will be used by SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation to provide direct TV broadcast services for Japan from its location at 124 degrees east in GEO, replacing the existing JCSAT-4A. Vinasat-2, a Lockheed Martin A2100 model satellite, weighed 2,969 kilograms at launch and carries 24 Ku-band transponders. Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group will use the satellite to provide radio, TV, and telephone services for Vietnam and surrounding nations from 131.8 degrees east in GEO. The launch was the 48th consecutive successful Ariane 5 launch, a streak stretch back nearly a decade.

Related Links:

•  NASASpaceFlight.com article
•  Vietnam News article
•  Spaceflight Now article
•  ESA press release
•  Arianespace press release

Posted: Tue, May 15 6:52 AM ET (1052 GMT)
A Soyuz rocket launched a spacecraft carrying three new International Space Station crew members on Tuesday. The Soyuz rocket lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 11:01 pm EDT Monday (0301 GMT, 9:01 am local time Tuesday) and placed the Soyuz TMA-04M spacecraft into orbit. On board the Soyuz are Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin and American astronaut Joseph Acaba. The Soyuz will dock with the ISS at 11:39 pm EDT Wednesday (0339 GMT Thursday), where the three will join the three people currently on the ISS: NASA's Don Pettit, ESA's Andre Kuipers, and Roscosmos's Oleg Kononenko.

Related Links:

•  CBS News article
•  AP article
•  SPACE.com article
•  Reuters article
•  NASA press release

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China launched on Thursday a satellite believed to be the latest in a series of military reconnaissance spacecraft. The Long March 4B lifted off from...