An Ariane 5 rocket delivered a robotic space bag and a pair of commercial communications satellites into orbit on Saturday following a fierce explosion in French Guiana, debuting new upgrades in Arianespace’s first mission since launching operations temporarily halted earlier this year because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The European Ariane 5 rocket and its three US-built loadloads departed from the ELA-3 launch zone in the Guiana Space Center at 18:04 EDT (2204 GMT; 7:04 French-Guyana time). The ride rides from 2.9 million pounds of its twin solid rocket boosters and with hydrogen-powered nuclear propulsion engine, the Ariane 5 bolted through cloud layers and came to the east from the jungle spaceport on the northeast coast of South America.
Less than an hour later, the rocket successfully launched three commercial satellites. It was the 300th attempt to launch the orbital since 1970 by the European spaceport in French Guiana.
The third launch of the Ariane 5 of 2020 was previously scheduled for July 31, but a sensor problem on the core stage of the rocket hydrogen tank forced Arianespace officials to release the countdown about two minutes before liftoff.
Ground crews at the Guiana Space Center rolled the rocket back to their assembly building and replaced the sensor last week, bringing the Ariane 5 back to the launch pad on Thursday.
The starting lineup delayed 31 minutes from the Ariane 5s on Saturday to wait for better top-level wind conditions on Saturday.
Once the wind improved, the countdown went up again and the Ariane 5 shot off its starting pad, skipping the speed of sound in less than a minute, then throwing its two side-mounted belt on solid rocket boosters nearly two -and-and-a-half minutes after liftoff.
From right to east, the rocket flew its Swiss-made loadload fairing about three-and-a-half minutes into the mission, as the Ariane 5 reached a height above the thick, lower layers of the atmosphere.
After nine minutes, the nuclear stage of the Ariane 5 shut down its Vulcain 2 engine and fell away, causing the rocket’s cryogenic top-stage HM7B engine to complete the task of placing the mission’s three satellite loadloads in an egg-shaped geostationary transmission path to stretch more than 22,000 miles (nearly 36,000 kilometers) over the equator.
The HM7B engine shut down for almost 26 minutes in flight, and the upper stage of the Ariane 5 began maneuvers to release its payloads into orbit.
The first satellite to separate from the Ariane 5 rocket was the 7,270-pound (3,298-kilogram) Galaxy 30 communications satellite. Owned by Intelsat, Galaxy 30 will provide commercial video and television broadcasting services in North America.
With C-band, Ku-band and Ka-band transponders, Galaxy 30 will also provide broadband connectivity to Intelsat customers.
Built by Northrop Grumman, the satellite also carries an L-band Wide Area Augmentation System loadload for the Federal Aviation Administration to support U.S. civil aviation navigation services, including precise altitude and position data for departing aircraft and arrive at busy airports.
“The current launch of Galaxy 30 demonstrates Intelsat’s long – term commitment to our North American media customers,” said Stephen Spengler, CEO of Intelsat. At Intelsat Renewal, we are investing in and upgrading our satellite fleet and terrestrial infrastructure. Galaxy 30 is a great example of how we can help our customers stay ahead of changing consumer demands, today and well into the future. “
Galaxy 30 will use its on-board fluid-powered engine to shape its orbit more than 22,000 miles across the equator, where the satellite’s speed will correspond to that of the Earth’s rotation. Intelsat plans to park the satellite at 125 degrees west longitude before launching commercial service.
During Saturday’s launch, the Galaxy 30 satellite housed Northrop Grumman’s second Mission Extension Vehicle, a robotic satellite service vehicle designed to connect to another satellite in geostationary orbit.
The MEV-2 spacecraft, which weighed 6,333 pounds (2,875 kilograms) at launch, separated from Ariane 5’s top stage a few minutes after Galaxy 30. MEV-2 follows the MEV-1 mission launched in October 2019 was launched aboard a Russian Proton rocket.
The MEV-1 mission docked with the Intelsat 901 in February, and landed on the satellite after completing the first docking between two commercial satellites, and the first-ever connection between two objects in geostationary orbit. Intelsat 901 was launched in 2001 and ran out of fuel. The Mission Extension Vehicle is designed to take attitude control of a client satellite and extend its useful life.
Intelsat has purchased life extension services for two of its satellites from Space Logistics, a subsidiary of Northrop Grumman that manages the commercial robotic service program. Intelsat 901 reopened commercial communications service in April.
After several months of orbital increase and phase modes, the MEV-2 mission will perform a similar docking and mission expansion service in early 2021 for the Intelsat 10-02 communications satellite launched in 2004. MEV-2 will Intelsat 10- provides 02 with five additional years of useful service life, and helps provide media and broadband services in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and South America.
“Today’s launch was particularly important for Intelsat, as Northrop Grumman’s innovative MEV-2 launched alongside the Galaxy 30,” Spengler said in a statement. “Intelsat was proud to partner with Northrop Grumman earlier this year to pioneer the future of space service with MEV-1 and our Intelsat 901 satellite. We look forward to this next exciting service mission with Intelsat 10-02. ”
With the deployment of Galaxy 30 and MEV-2, the Ariane 5 removes a carbon composition cloth that encloses the mission’s third satellite passenger – the Japanese-made BSAT-4b broadcast station – during launch. BSAT-4b separated from the rocket more than 47 minutes after the French-Guyana takeoff.
The BSAT-4b satellite, made by Maxar, will be placed in geostationary orbit at 110 degrees east longitude over the Asia-Pacific region. BSAT-4b will broadcast direct-to-home 8K and 4K ultra-high-definition television services for Japanese operator B-SAT. The new satellite will be a backup for BSAT-4a, launched in 2017, and will help deliver TV broadcasts of next year’s Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
Stéphane Israel, CEO of Arianespace, declared Saturday’s mission a ‘perfect launch’.
Wearing masks to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission, officials at the Guiana Space Center celebrated the successful launch with elbowboobs instead of the usual handshakes and high-fives.
The mission Saturday was the first by Arianespace since the start of the coronavirus pandemic forced a halt to preparations for launch at the European spaceport in French Guiana in March. Work on launch campaigns that were partially resumed in May, and Arianespace had plans to launch a light-class, solid-burning Vega rocket in late June with a cluster of 53 small satellites.
But a stretch of persistently unacceptable top-level winds kept the mission from launching, and engineers were required to charge batteries on the rocket and on some of the mission’s small satellite supplies. Arianespace officials then turned their attention to the next Ariane 5 rocket on the company’s launch schedule.
Arianespace will once again attempt to launch the Vega rocket’s small satellite rideshare mission on 31 August (1 September in Europe).
Saturday’s launch debuted several upgrades to the Ariane 5 rocket, including modified pressure valves on its fairload fairing. Engineers will gather data on the modified vent configuration to ensure it meets strict requirements for the launch of the $ 10 billion James Webb Space Telescope on an Ariane 5 rocket next year.
The launched car also had a lighter bay for equipment, a part of the rocket that contains the avionics and guidance systems of Ariane 5. That increases the lift capacity of the Ariane 5 by about 187 pounds, or 85 kilograms, according to Arianespace.
And the Ariane 5 flew on Saturday with a new autonomous location system, which will eventually be operationally used on Europe’s next generation Ariane 6 rocket. The autonomous system uses signals from European Galileo navigation satellites to determine the location of the rocket, streamline safety requirements, which are currently increasing on extensive ground infrastructure – such as radars – to track missiles as they approach the center of gravity. Leaving Guyana.
“This launcher was the best we’ve ever launched, with 10.2 (metric) tons available for the satellites,” said Israel. “So many, many innovations tonight for us.”
With the launch on Saturday, there are eight more rockets left over from Ariane 5 to launch before Arianespace transitions to the new Ariane 6 launcher, according to Daniel Neuenschwander, Director of Space Transport at the European Space Agency.
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