Ariane rocket launches two American satellites

Kourou (French Guiana), Dec 9: A heavy-lift Ariane-5 rocket blasted off from French Guiana putting into orbit two American telecommunications satellites in its fifth mission this year, space officials said.

The rocket launched on schedule from Europe's space base in Kourou, on the northeast coast of South America at 7.08 pm 0338 hrs IST.

Billed by the Arianespace rocket launch company as a cost effective launcher for large satellites, the heavy-lift rocket is capable of launching payloads of up to 10 metric tonnes.

This adds more than 3 tonnes of launch capacity to the current ''Generic'' Ariane-5 in service since the mid-1990s.

Arianespace is 28 per cent owned by European aerospace giant.

Twenty-seven minutes after the launch, the rocket released into a preliminary orbit the WildBlue-1 communications satellite for US operator Wildblue Communications.

Built in the United States by Space Systems/Loral, a division of Loral Space&Communications WildBlue weighed 4.7 metric tonnes (10,400 lb) at launch and is designed to provide high-speed internet services to rural areas of the United States and Canada.

''What we've done tonight will help us satisfy the tremendous demand we are having for our service,'' WildBlue vice president Jim Elliot said after the launch yesterday.

WildBlue said it is adding nearly 15,000 customers a month and expects to have 120,000 subscribers by the end of this year.

Five minutes later, the rocket released AMC-18, a 2.1 tonne (4,600 lb) satellite for SES Americom that will be used for high definition television and telecommunications services throughout the United States.

SES Americom is a subsidiary of Luxembourg-based SES Global, the world's largest satellite operator.

AMC-18 was built by Lockheed Martin , and is designed to operate in space for 15 years.

Jean-Yves Legall, Arianespace's CEO, said Friday's launch was the seventh consecutive successful launch for the heavy-lift Ariane-5 since it was put into commercial service.

Legall said six Ariane-5 launches were planned for 2007.

The first launch of the Ariane-5 heavy-lift in December 2002 ended in failure after the rocket exploded in flight due to an anomaly in its main engine.

Reuters