Arianespace logged its eighth success of 2002 with tonight's launch of Flight 153 - which used an Ariane 5 to place the European Stellat 5 and Japanese N-STAR c telecommunications spacecraft into geostationary transfer orbit.
Lifting from the Spaceport's ELA-3 launch complex, the Ariane 5 deployed Stellat 5 at just under 30 minutes into the mission, followed seven minutes later by the release of N-STAR c.