Uploaded February 2017 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Video Credit: Arianespace
Launch Updates: spaceflight101.com/ariane-5-va235
Europe’s Ariane 5 rocket leapt of its launch pad on the edge of the Amazon jungle at sunset on Tuesday, flying into the dark of night to lift a pair of commercial communications satellites into orbit for operators in Latin America and Indonesia. The 55-meter tall rocket thundered off from the French Guiana coast line at 21:39 UTC, just three minutes before the local sunset, embarking on a forty-minute mission to deliver over ten metric tons into a highly elliptical orbit.
Stowed away under the protective payload fairing of the 91st Ariane 5 were the SKY-Brasil-1 and Telkom 3S satellites, set for a 25-minute powered climb into a standard Geostationary Transfer Orbit peaking nearly 36,000 Kilometers above the equator followed by 15 minutes of maneuvering to separate the two payloads. It marked the first of six planned dual-payload delivery missions scheduled for Ariane 5 this year with a seventh mission toward the end of the year lifting a group of four Galileo satellites into Medium Earth Orbit.
Video Credit: Arianespace
Launch Updates: spaceflight101.com/ariane-5-va235
Europe’s Ariane 5 rocket leapt of its launch pad on the edge of the Amazon jungle at sunset on Tuesday, flying into the dark of night to lift a pair of commercial communications satellites into orbit for operators in Latin America and Indonesia. The 55-meter tall rocket thundered off from the French Guiana coast line at 21:39 UTC, just three minutes before the local sunset, embarking on a forty-minute mission to deliver over ten metric tons into a highly elliptical orbit.
Stowed away under the protective payload fairing of the 91st Ariane 5 were the SKY-Brasil-1 and Telkom 3S satellites, set for a 25-minute powered climb into a standard Geostationary Transfer Orbit peaking nearly 36,000 Kilometers above the equator followed by 15 minutes of maneuvering to separate the two payloads. It marked the first of six planned dual-payload delivery missions scheduled for Ariane 5 this year with a seventh mission toward the end of the year lifting a group of four Galileo satellites into Medium Earth Orbit.
