Last month Arianespace launched its third commercial mission in fewer than 20 days. Flight V125's Ariane 44L lifted off from Kourou, French Guiana, on 21 December. It carried the world's largest commercial communications satellite - the Hughes Space and Communications Galaxy XI (right), the first of its HS-702 buses, for PanAmSat.
The launch was Arianespace's 10th last year. The first this year is expected on 24 January when an Ariane 4 will launch PanAmSat's Galaxy XR. Meanwhile, the fourth Orbital Sciences Taurus was launched on 22 December. The lift-off, from Vandenberg AFB, California, carried the TRW-Korean Aerospace Research Institute Kompsat multipurpose satellite and NASA's Active Cavity Irradiance Monitor satellite.
Source: Flight International
