Posted: Sat, May 4, 2002, 1:41 AM ET (0541 GMT)
An Ariane 4 booster successfully launched the French SPOT 5 remote sensing satellite Friday night. The Ariane 42P, the version of the Ariane 4 that uses two solid-propellant strap-on boosters, lifted off from Kourou, French Guiana, at 9:31 pm EDT Friday (0131 GMT Saturday). The spacecraft separated from the booster 20 minutes after liftoff, after being placed into a 810-km Sun-synchronous orbit. SPOT 5, built by Astrium, is the latest generation of remote sensing satellites operated by French company SPOT Image for the French space agency CNES. The spacecraft will provide color images with resolutions of 10 meters and black and white images of 2.5 meters resolution.
