Arianespace's Ariane 5 booster is due to return to flight on 1 March following the failure of its last mission in July. The vehicle will carry the European Space Agency's (ESA) $2 billion environmental flagship, Envisat, from French Guiana.
Improvements to the combustion systems of the Ariane 5 upper stage have been made after last year's failure, which led to the loss of one communications satellite after it was placed into a useless orbit, and resulted in ESA's Artemis communications technology satellite being stranded in a lower than planned orbit. Artemis's thrusters and ion propulsion system are being used to raise its orbit.
The 8,200kg (18,000lb) Envisat is to be launched into a sun-synchronous, 800km (500 mile) polar orbit on a five-year mission with a suite of 10 instruments, weighing 2,050kg, from 14 countries. The craft will observe the Earth's environment and ecosystem - the land, oceans, atmosphere and ice caps - in unprecedented detail as part of a worldwide campaign to monitor the Earth's environment. A similar polar platform, Terra, was launched by NASA in 1999.
Source: Flight International
