Tag Archives: Arianespace

Ariane 5 has launched the giant James Webb Telescope into its transfer orbit. The Ariane 5 rocket lifted off from the Guiana Space Center, Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on Christmas day, and the telescope separated successfully at an altitude of close to 1500 kilometers 27 minutes into the flight.

NASA and the ESA have rescheduled the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) for 24th December due to a communication problem between the spacecraft and ground equipment. JWST was placed on top of Arianespace’s Ariane 5 rocket over a week ago as part of launch preparations.

Two more: Arianespace has successfully launched two more Galileo satellites, growing Europe’s navigation constellation to 28 satellites, the European Space Agency (ESA) said. Soyuz launcher VS-26, operated by Arianespace and commissioned by ESA, lifted off with the pair of 715 kg satellites from French Guiana on 5 December, ESA said.

The Australian operator SingTel Optus will launch its Optus-11 communications satellite on an Ariane 6 in 2023, ArianeGroup said. SingTel Optus will use an Ariane 64 configuration with four side boosters to inject its new Optus-11 satellite into its geostationary transfer orbit. Optus-11 is a Ku-band satellite serving Australia and New Zealand with several thousand beams, Arianespace said.

Arianespace has successfully launched three French military Ceres satellites on a Vega from the European spaceport in French Guiana, Airbus and Arianespace said. The satellites were built by Airbus Defence and Space and Thales for the French Armament General Directorate. CERES stands for Space-based Signal Intelligence Capability.

The 4th edition of the Paris Peace Forum announced the release of the Net Zero Space Initiative on which occasion Astroscale signed on as an official supporter. The Initiative involves private sector, civil society, academia, public authorities and regulators.  The goal is to support “the sustainable use of outer space for the benefit of all humankind by 2030.”

Arianespace has launched another Ariane 5 from ArianeGroup with two giant satellites on board and broke the record of the largest total mass injected with a single flight into the geostationary transfer orbit. For its 111th launch, flight number VA255 from Kourou, French Guiana, Ariane 5 executed the “highest performing flight by any launcher to geostationary transfer orbit”.

OneWeb launched another 36 satellites, bringing the constellation in orbit to 358, over half of the planned 648 satellites, the low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite company said. The satellites were launched by Arianespace from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia.

After eight years of work: the new launch pad for Ariane 6 in French Guiana has been inaugurated, the French space agency CNES said. "ESA and ArianeGroup now have the means to launch the future Ariane 6, whose first flight is expected in 2022", CNES said.

Arianespace has launched more than 1000 satellites since its foundation with Flight ST35 on Soyuz for OneWeb, the company said. The launch for OneWeb placed another 34 OneWeb satellites into orbit; Arianespace has now deployed a total of 322 satellites for the global connectivity constellation, it said.