Ariane Five rocket launched with communications satellites aboard

0 Comments | AFP, October, 2006

KOUROU (AFP) — Europe's Ariane-5 heavy rocket, with a lift capacity of 10 tonnes, lifted off bearing three artificial satellites into earth orbit from the space centre on this French Caribbean island. The Ariane-5 ECA was loaded with DirectTV 9S for the US operator DIRECTV, Inc., Optus D1 for the Australian telecoms firm Optus and an experimental satellite, LDREX-2, for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

This is the third in Ariane 5 series. The launch at the European Space Agency (ESA) base in Kourou, French Guiana, went ahead despite a strike, now in its third day, by some members of staff seeking improved working hours. The European launch operator Arianespace said on Tuesday the launch, originally scheduled for Thursday, had been postponed by a day in order to carry...