First Ariane 5 launch since February due this week as satellite hold-up pushes back uprated ECA lift-off to October
Arianespace’s first launch since the February return to flight of the uprated Ariane 5 ECA has been scheduled for 11 August. The basic Ariane 5G is to carry the iPSTAR communications satellite for Thai operator Shinsat.
But the European launch company’s next flight, a second Ariane 5 ECA carrying the Spaceway 2 and Telkom 2 communications satellites, has been delayed again, until October, due to continued rework of the Telkom satellite at builder Orbital Sciences. This launch was delayed from June by problems with Telkom 2.
Launch of the Optus D1 communications satellite aboard another Ariane 5G, originally scheduled for later this year, has also been delayed, into 2006. The reason for the delay has not been disclosed by Australian satellite operator Optus.
A second Optus satellite, D2, will be the first to fly on a Starsem Soyuz ST from Sinnamary, French Guiana in 2007.
Meanwhile, Europe’s first re-ignitable cryogenic upper-stage engine, the Vinci, has completed its longest test firing yet, lasting for 60s, on a test stand at the German space agency’s Lampoldshausen facility.
The expander-cycle engine had been planned for the upper stage of the Ariane 5 ECB, but development of this booster had to be cancelled because of market considerations and because development cost overruns on the Ariane 5 ECA reduced the Vinci budget.
Testing of a second Vinci engine, which can perform five restarts, will continue in September at Lampoldshausen.
TIM FURNISS / LONDON
Source: Flight International
