Preparations for Arianespace’s next Ariane 5 mission marked an important milestone today as the launcher was transferred from the integration building to the final assembly facility at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana.
Today’s rollout clears the way for the mission’s two payloads to be integrated atop the Ariane 5, and enables final preparations to be completed for the planned September 29 liftoff.
The upcoming flight uses an Ariane 5 Generic version, which will carry the dual payload of France’s Syracuse 3A governmental military communications satellite and the U.S. Galaxy 15 commercial telecom spacecraft for PanAmSat.
This mission is one of three Ariane 5 flights planned before year-end from Europe’s Spaceport. The other two also will be dual satellite payload missions, using an Ariane 5 Generic and a heavy-lift Ariane 5 ECA vehicle. Spacecraft scheduled to be orbited by these flights are India’s Insat 4A telecommunications satellite, the MSG 2 meteorological platform for Europe, the U.S. Spaceway 2 broadband spacecraft, and Indonesia’s TELKOM 2 C-band telecommunications satellite.
