For its third flight of the year, the TerreStar-1 telecommunications satellite has made initial contact with Ariane 5 hardware, with the very large spacecraft being mated to the cone-shaped adapter unit that will serve as its interface with the Ariane 5 ECA. This activity occurred in the S5A hall of the Spaceport’s S5 payload preparation facility, where TerreStar-1 was loaded with its onboard propellant last week. The next step will be TerreStar-1’s transfer to the Ariane 5 Final Assembly Building, where it will be installed atop the heavy-lift launcher as a solo payload for the July 1 mission. TerreStar-1 is a Space Systems/Loral-built spacecraft, and will be used by TerreStar Networks to deliver voice, data, and video communications to satellite/terrestrial mobile devices the size of a typical smart phone. Operating in the 2 GHz spectrum, TerreStar-1 is designed for coverage of the United States and Canada and will offer services for government, emergency responders, rural communities and commercial users.
In parallel, the fourth heavy-lift Ariane 5 ECA for launch in 2009 has completed its initial build-up at the Spaceport. Industrial prime contractor EADS Astrium achieved the assembly milestone inside the Spaceport’s Launcher Integration Building when it topped off the vehicle with Ariane 5’s upper composite, which consists of the ESC-A cryogenic upper stage and equipment bay. Using a streamlined build-up process for Ariane 5, the ESC-A cryogenic upper stage and equipment bay are installed as a single unit, having been integrated and checked out in Europe by EADS Astrium, then shipped to the Spaceport. In the prior procedure, Ariane 5’s upper stage and vehicle equipment bay were installed on the launcher in two steps at the Spaceport, which required additional time and validation procedures. Additional systems integration and check-out are now underway with the Ariane 5 to ready it for transfer to the Spaceport’s Final Integration Building. This step will mark Astrium’s delivery of the Ariane 5 ECA to Arianespace, which takes over for the installation of the mission’s dual-satellite payload and the launch operations.
