Broadbandindia Magazine

French launcher Ariane 5 lifted off Arabsat-5A and South Korea’s COMS satellites in French Guiana one minute after the launch window opened at 6:41 p.m. Saturday 26th June local time (GMT 0941). After two stops of the last minute countdown, the launch marked the second Ariane 5 flight of 2010.

The heavy-lift Ariane 5 weighed approximately 8,390 kg as a whole, including a combined mass of 7,315 kg for the two satellites. Arabsat-5A, the spacecraft on the upper position in the rocket, was built by Astrium and Thales Alenia Space on a Turkey contract for the Arabsat telecommunications operator, and is to operate at an orbital location of 30.5 degree East.

As the seventh Arabsat satellite lofted by the Ariane family, it is expected to offer telecommunications and TV broadcasting services over the Middle East and Africa. South Korea’s COMS (Communication, Ocean and Meteorological Satellite) is a multimission satellite with three payloads for meteorological observation,  ocean surveillance and experimental broadband multimedia communications.