Arianespace launched Eutelsat's W2 and the Swedish Sirius 3communications satellites into geostationary transfer orbit aboard the Ariane 44L/V111 from Kourou at 22:51 GMT on 5 October. The W2 was built by Alcatel (formerly Aerospatiale's satellite division) and the Sirius by Hughes Space and Communications. The launch came just 19 days after flight V110.
Another Eutelsat satellite, the Matra Marconi Space-built Hot Bird 5, was due to be launched by an Atlas 2A from Cape Canaveral on 9 October. Arianespace's next launch will be V113 on 28 October, using another 44L model, the payloads for which have not been officially confirmed. Flight 112, scheduled for 20 October, is the third development launch of the Ariane 503.
The Boeing-led Sea Launch project's Odyssey floating launch pad arrived at Seal Beach, California on 4 October in preparation for the first launch of the Zenit 3 booster - of a dummy satellite - in March 1999 from the mid-Pacific. Boeing has paid a $10 million penalty to the US Government to settle charges that it transferred military technology to Russia and Ukraine during the course of development work.
The next commercial customer for the ILS International Launch Services Russian Proton, the Telstar 6, which was to have been launched on 16 October, has been delayed until at least the end of November by Loral Space and Communications to conduct tests on French-German built travelling wave tubes that may be susceptible to thermally induced fatigue.
Source: Flight International
