Posted: Sat, Dec 18, 2004, 6:54 PM ET (2354 GMT)
An Ariane 5 booster successfully launched seven satellites Saturday afternoon, including a French reconnaissance satellite. The Ariane 5G lifted off from the Kourou Space Center in French Guiana at 11:26 pm EST (1626 GMT) and placed the seven satellites into Sun-synchronous polar orbits. The primary payload on the rocket was Helios 2A, a 4,200-kilogram optical reconnaissance satellite built by EADS Astrium and Alcatel for the French government. Also launched were four Essaim satellites, designed to demonstrate technology for a future network of small signals intelligence satellites. The Ariane 5 also carried Parasol, an atmospheric sciences satellite for the French space agency CNES, and Nanosat, a small technology demonstration satellite built by the Spanish aerospace research organization INTA. The launch was the third and final Ariane 5 mission of 2004. The next Ariane 5, scheduled for early 2005, will be the first flight test of the upgraded ECA version of the booster since the failed inaugural launch in December 2002.
