Ariane launches communications, weather satellites
Posted: Fri, Jul 6, 2012, 9:36 AM ET (1336 GMT)
An Ariane 5 rocket launched a commercial communications satellite and a European weather satellite on Thursday evening. The Ariane 5 ECA lifted off from Kourou, French Guiana, at 5:36 pm EDT (2136 GMT) carrying the EchoStar 17 and MSG-3 satellites, releasing both into geosynchronous transfer orbits about a half-hour later. EchoStar 17, build by Space Systems/Loral for EchoStar subsidiary Hughes, weighed 6,100 kilograms at liftoff and carries a Ka-band payload to provide broadband Internet services to customers in North America from 107.1 degrees west in GEO. The satellite is based on the same model as Intelsat-19, which suffered a solar array deployment problem shortly after launch last month; Space Systems/Loral reported the array deployment for EchoStar 17 went smoothly. MSG-3, but by Thales Alenia Space for European meteorological agency Eumetsat, weighed just over 2,000 kilograms at launch. It will provides meteorological data from GEO to support weather forecasting for Europe.
An Ariane 5 rocket launched a commercial communications satellite and a European weather satellite on Thursday evening. The Ariane 5 ECA lifted off from Kourou, French Guiana, at 5:36 pm EDT (2136 GMT) carrying the EchoStar 17 and MSG-3 satellites, releasing both into geosynchronous transfer orbits about a half-hour later. EchoStar 17, build by Space Systems/Loral for EchoStar subsidiary Hughes, weighed 6,100 kilograms at liftoff and carries a Ka-band payload to provide broadband Internet services to customers in North America from 107.1 degrees west in GEO. The satellite is based on the same model as Intelsat-19, which suffered a solar array deployment problem shortly after launch last month; Space Systems/Loral reported the array deployment for EchoStar 17 went smoothly. MSG-3, but by Thales Alenia Space for European meteorological agency Eumetsat, weighed just over 2,000 kilograms at launch. It will provides meteorological data from GEO to support weather forecasting for Europe.
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