Busy Days Ahead For Arianespace + Dual Sat Launch

The Ariane 5 for Arianespace’s next dual-satellite mission has been moved to the Spaceport’s Final Assembly Building. This marks the delivery of the second workhorse launcher in 2008. With this milestone, preparations continue on schedule for the heavy-lift Ariane 5‘s April 18 launch, which will carry the Star One C2 and VINASAT-1 telecommunications satellites. Ariane 5’s rollout from the Launcher Integration Building to the Final Assembly Building used the Spaceport’s rail transportation infrastructure. The transfer represented this vehicle’s formal handover from industrial prime contractor Astrium, which was responsible for its build-up, to Arianespace for payload installation and the subsequent launch operations. The April 18 mission will carry a combined satellite payload mass of approximately 6,700 kg. In the Ariane 5’s dual-passenger configuration, Star One C2 will be riding in the upper payload position and is to be released first during the flight sequence. VINASAT-1 is the mission’s lower passenger, housed inside the Sylda 5 dispenser system, and it will be deployed approximately 31 minutes after liftoff. Star One C2 was built by Thales Alenia Space for Brazil‘s Star One telecommunications operator, and carries a payload of 28 C-band transponders, 16 Ku-band transponders, and 1 X-band transponder. It is based on Thales Alenia Space‘s Spacebus 3000B3 platform, and will have a liftoff mass of 4,100 kg.