On 21 September 2011, an Ariane 5 launcher lifted off from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on its mission to place two telecommunications satellites, Arabsat-5C and SES-2, into their planned transfer orbits.

Liftoff of flight VA204, the 60th Ariane 5 mission, came at 23:38 CEST (21:38 GMT; 18:38 French Guiana). The target injection orbit had a perigee altitude of 249.6 km, an apogee altitude at injection of 35 957 km and an inclination of 2º. The satellites were accurately injected into their transfer orbits about 27 minutes and 35 minutes after liftoff, respectively.