Tim Furniss/LONDON
LAUNCHERS from the USA, China and Europe successfully lofted five satellites into orbit during the first nine days of July.
The most significant was a Chinese Long March 3 (LM3) booster launch of the Hughes HS-376 communications satellite, the ApStar 1A, into geostationary-transfer orbit (GTO) from Xichang on 3 July, restoring some of the insurance community's confidence. It was the first launch by China since the catastrophic loss of its first LM3B on 15 February.
Another LM3 - which has flown six successful and two partially successful missions since 1984 - is to launch a Hughes-built ChinaSat 7 in August and an uprated LM3A will launch a domestic communications satellite, the DFH 3, in October. The launch of the next LM3B, carrying the Hughes Apstar 2R, is due in December.
Ariane flight V89 carried the Aerospatiale-built Arabsat 2A and Turksat 1C communications satellites into GTO on 9 July on the seventh successful Ariane 4 flight of the year. It was also the 20th successful flight of the Ariane 44L, the most powerful model in the fleet.
The Arabsat 2A satellite was the first Aerospatiale Spacebus 3000 model, with a launch weight of 2,615kg and power supply of over 5kW, compared with the Spacebus 2000 Turksat 1C's respective parameters of 1,745kg and 3.5kW.
Arianespace's next flight - the V90, using another 44L - will carry the Italsat F2 and Telecom 2D satellites on 7 August. The organisation plans six more Ariane 4 launches this year.
Orbital Sciences (OSC) air-launched a Pegasus XL booster on 2 July, carrying NASA's Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer Earth Probe (TOMS-EP) into orbit. It was the second successful flight by the XL and OSC's first mission for NASA.
The XL was released over the Pacific Ocean 100km (55nm) west of Vandenberg AFB, California, and lofted the TOMS into an initial 345 x 953km, 97.4¡ orbit. The orbit will be circularised by the satellite's own engine.
Six more Pegasus flights are planned this year by the company, which has received $300 million in new space business in the past three months, including the contract to build the X-34 re-useable air-launched satellite launcher. The next XL flight is due in August.
A classified US Air Force research-and-development payload was lofted into orbit from Cape Canaveral, also on 2 July, aboard the first two-stage Titan 4 version to be flown from the Florida base.
Source: Flight International
