Arianespace achieved another commercial milestone with today’s Ariane 5 launch, which was the vehicle’s 33rd consecutive success and its fifth flight in 2009 – bringing total payloads orbited by the company this year to seven telecommunications satellites, two deep space telescopes and two piggyback spacecraft. This latest mission carried the Amazonas 2 civilian relay platform for Spain’s HISPASAT and the German COMSATBw-1 secure military communications satellite, demonstrating the capability of Arianespace to match up diverse spacecraft on Ariane 5’s trademark dual-passenger launches. Today’s flight orbited a combined payload mass of more than 7,900 kg. for the Amazonas 2 and COMSATBw-1 passengers, bringing Ariane 5’s total lift performance in 2009 to approximately 34,000 kg. This mission also reinforced Ariane 5’s highly accurate delivery capabilities for its payloads, providing an on-target injection with the following provisional parameters. Perigee: 249.7 km. for a target of 249.7 km Apogee 35,959 km. for a target of 35,949 km Inclination: 3.00 deg. for a target of 3.00 deg. Ariane 5’s launch today marked the 191st mission of an Ariane vehicle since the launcher family began operations in 1979. GTD is participating at Arianespace and Guyana Space Center from year 1992, that is from 49th mission, that is 142 consecutive missions with GTD’s engineers participation.
