Arianespace has been awarded launch contracts by Japanese satellite operator JSAT for the JCSAT-8 telecommunications satellite and the LDREX experimental deployable antenna as the European launch company takes a two-month break from launches forced by delays in satellite deliveries.
The Hughes Space & Communications HS 601 platform JCSAT-8 - the fourth JSAT satellite contracted for launch by Arianespace - will be carried by an Ariane 4 or 5 from Kourou, French Guiana, at the end of 2001. The National Space Development Agency of Japan's LDREX spacecraft, to be launched by Ariane 5 from Kourou in the third quarter, is a half-scale mock-up of a deployable antenna for Japan's ETS-8 technological satellite. The LDREX will have a camera to record the antenna's deployment.
The latest contracts take Arianespace's commercial order book to 210 satellites, with 39 remaining to be launched. The new orders follow the launch on 18 April of PanAmSat's Galaxy IVR satellite on an Ariane 42L version with a pair of liquid strap-on boosters providing additional thrust to the first stage's four engines during liftoff and initial ascent. The satellite, due to enter service in June, was placed into a 200km (124 miles) by 32,230km orbit.
An Ariane is due to launch PanAmSat's PAS 1R spacecraft this summer after a break in launches over the next couple of months due to satellite delivery problems. The next Ariane mission, carrying SES' Astra 2B satellite and GE Americom's GE-7 satellite, was set for 23 May, but the launch was postponed due to the unavailability of the Astra 2B following problems with its onboard thruster.
Arianespace hopes to resume flights by June/July and aims to launch five Ariane 5s and up to eight Ariane 4s this year.
Source: Flight International
