Ariane 5’s fourth launch of 2014
An Ariane 5 ECA has lifted off from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana and placed two telecommunications satellites, Measat-3b and Optus-10, into their planned orbits.
Launch of flight VA218 occurred on 11 September at 22:05 GMT (19:05 local time; 00:05 CEST on 12 September).
Measat-3b, with a mass of 5897 kg and mounted on top of Ariane’s Sylda dual-payload adapter, was the first to be released 27 minutes into the mission.
Following a series of burns controlled by Ariane’s computer, the Sylda structure encasing Optus-10 was then jettisoned. Optus-10, with a mass of 3270 kg, was released into its own transfer orbit about 7 min 30 sec after the first satellite.
Measat-3b, owned and operated by Measat Global Berhad, will be positioned at 91.5°E longitude in geostationary orbit to provide telecommunications and direct-to-home broadcast services to Malaysia, India, Indonesia and Australia. The satellite has a design life of about 15 years.
Optus-10, owned by Optus in Australia, a subsidiary of SingTel, will be positioned at 164°E longitude in geostationary orbit to provide direct TV broadcast, internet, telephone and data transmission services to Australia, New Zealand and the Antarctic region. It has a design life of 15 years.
The payload mass for this launch was 10 097 kg. The satellites totalled 9167 kg, with payload adapters and carrying structures making up the rest.
Flight VA218 was the 75th Ariane 5 mission.
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