Another successful launch for Ariane 4
Early this morning, Europe’s Ariane-4 launcher added to its unbroken record of 62 successful launches by successfully placing into orbit an Intelsat 902 satellite. The launch took place from Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.
Flight 137 left on time at 03:46 local time (08:46 CEST). Separation of the boosters took place 2 m 30 s after liftoff, shortly followed by first stage burnout, separation and the ignition of the launcher’s second stage.
On board the Ariane 44L was the 4.8-tonne Intelsat 902 satellite, the second of Intelsat’s new generation IX-series satellites to be placed into geostationary orbit. This is the 19th Ariane launch of an Intelsat satellite; the first took place 18 years ago in 1983, four years after the very first Ariane launcher was sent into space.
The next Ariane-4 launch, programmed for 25 September, will launch Eutelsat’s Atlantic Bird 2 satellite, while the next Ariane-5 mission is expected to take place before the end of the year.
