Arianespace Maintains its 2007 Mission Pace: A New Ariane 5 Takes Shape at the Spaceport

(May 24, 2007) -- Another Ariane 5 has started the assembly process at Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana as Arianespace moves ahead with plans to conduct a total of six missions during 2007 with the workhorse launch vehicle.

To meet the goal of performing its next two flights in an interval of less than one month, the vehicle now taking shape in the Launcher Integration Building is an Ariane 5 GS version, which is to orbit the Intelsat-11 and Horizons-2 satellites on a mission targeted for mid-September.

This vehicle will go through its basic build-up process, which includes the positioning of its core cryogenic stage (shown in the photo at left), mating of the two large solid rocket boosters, followed by installation of the upper stage and vehicle equipment bay.

When these steps are completed, the Ariane 5 GS will be transferred to the Spaceport's Final Assembly Building, freeing up the Launcher Integration Building for preparation of an Ariane 5 ECA. The heavy-lift Ariane 5 ECA is to be used for a mission scheduled in mid-August, which will orbit the SPACEWAY 3 and BSAT-3A satellites.

Once the Ariane 5 ECA's basic assembly is complete, a swap-out will occur at the Spaceport. The Ariane 5 ECA will move over to the Final Assembly Building for installation of its dual-satellite payload, while the Ariane 5 GS returns to the Launcher Integration Building, ready for final processing.

The operational resources available for Arianespace - including the extensive ground infrastructure at Europe's Spaceport and its two mobile launch tables for Ariane 5 - provide the flexibility to perform two launch campaigns in parallel to meet the mission needs of its customers.

Source : Arianespace

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