August 29, 2013

New launch success for Ariane 5 on 71st flight

Thursday 29 August at 17:30 local time in French Guiana (22:30 CET), Ariane 5 completed another flawless launch from Europe’s spaceport at the Guiana Space Centre, orbiting two telecommunications satellites, Eutelsat 25B - Es’hail 1 and GSAT-7. The launch marked the 57th straight success for the European launcher since 2003.

With a launch mass of more than 6.3 tonnes, Eutelsat 25B - Es’hail 1 is a telecommunications satellite developed jointly by French operator Eutelsat and Es’hailSat, the Qatar satellite company. It will serve the burgeoning markets of the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia, while also supplying services for Qatar’s national needs. Further, this new satellite will add to the coverage of the Eutelsat 25A satellite launched in 1998, from which it is set to take over. Its planned operating lifetime is 15 years.

With a launch mass of more than 2.6 tonnes, GSAT-7 is a multiband telecommunications satellite developed by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and the latest in the series of GSAT satellites launched by India. The new satellite is designed to improve national coverage of telecommunications, transmission services and live broadcast services. GSAT-7 will also be the first ISRO satellite to serve India’s armed forces, notably the Navy which will be the main user. The satellite’s planned operating lifetime is 10 years.

Commending Ariane 5 for its performance and its 57th straight success, CNES President Jean-Yves Le Gall said: “I would like to congratulate all the teams who helped to accomplish this new launch success, those at ESA, Arianespace, Eutelsat, Es’hailSat, ISRO and across Europe’s space industry. I would also like to thank CNES’s teams at the Launch Vehicles Directorate and the Guiana Space Centre for their efforts in readying for this latest launch success within weeks.”

CNES press contacts
Alain Delrieu – Tel. +33 (0)1 44 76 74 04 alain.delrieu@cnes.fr
Pascale Bresson – Tel. +33 (0)1 44 76 75 39 pascale.bresson@cnes.fr
Julien Watelet – Tel. +33 (0)1 44 76 78 37 julien.watelet@cnes.fr
Press office – Tel. +33 (0)1 44 76 76 88 cnes-presse@cnes.fr


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