Arianespace’s mission that orbited the Intelsat 20 and HYLAS 2 satellites today marked the milestone 50th consecutive success for its Ariane 5 heavy-lift launcher, confirming this vehicle’s role as the launch services industry reference in reliability, flexibility and performance. With the deployment of its latest two passengers during a flight of 34 minutes from the Spaceport in French Guiana, Ariane 5’s combined lift performance in the 50 straight successes totals more than 434,000 kg., delivering payloads to geostationary transfer orbit, low Earth orbit, Sun-synchronous polar orbit and Earth escape trajectories. Payloads carried by Ariane 5 have included civilian and defense telecommunications satellites, TV broadcast relay platforms, resupply vessels for the International Space Station, civilian and military Earth observation systems, meteorology and environmental spacecraft and deep-space exploration probes; along with auxiliary and piggyback payloads for scientific and industrial experiments, defense early warning, electronic intelligence (ELINT) and climate research. Recognizing those who contribute to Ariane 5’s success In post-launch comments from the Spaceport, Arianespace Chairman & CEO Jean-Yves Le Gall paid homage to all who contribute to Ariane 5’s successes, from the mission personnel in Europe and the launch teams in French Guiana to Europe’s industrial suppliers, as well as the European Space Agency and France’s CNES space agency – which have played key roles in the launcher’s development and operation. “Thanks to all you in Europe and French Guiana, Ariane 5 is something that works…works very well…and will continue to work for a long time,” he added. “Following tonight’s launch, and with all of the contracts we’ve signed since the start of this year, our order book effectively covers no less than 19 firm Ariane 5 launches, which guarantees us more than three years of activity. Therefore, thank you and bravo to everyone!” Lifting off from the Spaceport, Arianespace's heavy-lift Ariane 5 begins its 50th consecutive successful mission to deploy the Intelsat 20 and HYLAS 2 satellites. The numbers from Ariane 5’s unbroken string of 50 mission successes are impressive. In its most frequent role as the launcher of choice for telecommunications and TV broadcast satellite operators and manufacturers worldwide, Ariane 5 has delivered platforms with a total equivalent relay capacity of well over 3,200 transponders, channels and beams for both civil and military users. The largest payload lofted by Ariane 5 is Europe’s Automated Transfer Vehicle for servicing of the International Space Station, with the heaviest of the three orbited so far weighing more than 19,700 kg.; while the smallest were piggyback satellites such as Spain's Nanosat, with had a liftoff mass of less than 20 kg. Le Gall said today’s mission also was historic from another aspect, as its lift performance of nearly 10.2 metric tons beat the world’s record for total mass launched to geostationary transfer orbit. “We captured the previous record last year with just over 10 tons, and this demonstrates the pertinence of our improvement strategy, which – step-by-step – enables us to increase the capacity of our launcher while retaining its extraordinary reliability.” GTD’s Team is very proud of being part of this amazing track record, by delivering to Arianespace and CGS operational services in the field of the real time computing systems from year 1990.
