Arianespace has conducted its second Ariane 5 launch of the year with the lofting of the Eutelsat 65 West A relay satellite. Following a rare single passenger launch to kick off 2016, the Ariane 5 was again tasked with launching one large bird as opposed to the usual dual passenger mission.Ariane 5 is designed to place payloads weighing up to 9.6 tonnes into GTO, which is designed to allow the Ariane 5 ECA to handle dual launches of very large satellites. However, for the opening launch of 2016, Intelsat 29e was the only payload to be lofted on January 27.https://youtu.be/FSqtiuvPR_IThis latest mission was designated Flight VA229 in Arianespace’s launcher family numbering system and was the 229th Ariane mission since this series of vehicles entered operation in 1979.Built by Space Systems Loral (SSL) in the United States, the 6.5 ton satellite is a tri-band satellite designed for Latin American markets, utilizing the C, Ku and Ka bands – providing video distribution and direct-to-home broadcasting, along with flexible high throughput for broadband access, from an orbital position of 65 deg. West.“Arianespace has just launched its 525th satellite,” said Arianespace CEO Stéphane Israël. “We are both pleased and proud of having performed this launch for Eutelsat, the European operator who has been our partner since we both started operations in the early 1980s, with French Higher Education and Research Minister Thierry Mandon seeing the launch in person. I would like to thank Eutelsat for its ongoing confidence.“I am also delighted to see Ariane 5 continue its extraordinary career with its 71st successful launch in a row. I would like to thank the teams in charge of Ariane 5 production under the leadership of industrial prime, Airbus Safran Launchers .ABOUT GTD AT KOUROU SPACE CENTERSince 2003, each time an Ariane 5, a Soyuz or a VEGA are launched from the spaceport in Guiana, as well as the payload, many hours of work are required from GTD’s technical teams.GTD supplies services and software in practically all steps of an Ariane 5 mission – from the launcher's flight program to the responsibility of ground systems that control the launching operations, as well as the radars, telemetry and mission control systems.Each launch is also a challenge for GTD’s team, who is responsible for all the computer systems at the launch site. Each launch is a fresh new project; there is no routine, which means our engineers always embark on an adventure than goes beyond technical jobs that require a lot of responsibility.Countdown: The campaign to prepare a launcher takes about 22 - 30 working days, and a campaign to prepare the payload (satellite) takes from 4 weeks to 5 months (depending on the mission and its magnitude). Our teams are currently able to launch up to seven double Ariane 5, up to four soyuz and up to two Vega per year, that is, 14 telecom satellites and 4 to 6 EO and scientific spacecraft every year.Launch day: The end of the countdown is near. The final operations to fill the liquid propellants on the Ariane 5, and then the ground operation tests are carried out on the launcher. During this stage, gtd's staff is working hard all round the Spaceport. In the launch site's bunker, the technical centre, in Des Pêres Mountain where the radar and telemetry installations are, in the meteorological centre where the last conditions before the launch is authorised.At the same time, a support team is configuring a backup of the computer systems in Barcelona, 8,000 km away from the Ariane 5, which is already letting out oxygen steam.Ariane is launched: Once the launcher is in the air, it is controlled on board (by the embedded computer) and from the Jupiter Control Centre (CDC). These two systems were also designed by GTD’s engineers and are currently being operated by GTD’s engineers, too. Once the launcher releases the payloads (at a height of 500 - 600 km), everyone breathes a sigh of relief and starts clapping and cheering and congratulating each other; but our engineers are already thinking about the next mission that starts the following morning...
