On Thursday evening, June 12, Arianespace boosted two satellites into geostationary transfer orbit (GTO): the Skynet 5C military communications satellite for Astrium and Paradigm on behalf of the British Ministry of Defence (MoD), and the civil communications satellite Turksat 3A for Turkish operator Turksat AS, as part of a turnkey contract with Thales Alenia Space. 25th success in a row for Ariane 5 The latest successful launch of an Ariane 5, the third in 2008 – and 25th in a row – confirms that Arianespace’s launch Service & Solutions continue to set the standard for all civil and military telecom operators. It also reflects the strategic importance of the Ariane launcher, which guarantees independent access to space for European governments. Ariane 5 is the only commercial launcher in service today capable of simultaneously launching two payloads, and gives Arianespace customers unrivalled performance, flexibility and competitiveness. Next launch The next Ariane launch is scheduled for late June. The Ariane 5 ECA for flight V184 is approaching completion in the Launcher Integration Building and will shortly be moved to the Final Assembly Building, recently vacated by the rollout of V183. ProtoStar 1 and BADR-6 have arrived at the spaceport and are being readied for launcher integration in the S5 Payload Preparation Facility. GTD is , from year 1998, the general contractor and the main responsible for the overall Real Time IT Systems of the Guyana Space Center, including: · Tracking and telemetry systems Launching center Control Center Meteorological and Flight Safety control systems Launcher Assembling and Payload Preparation facilities
