Live coverage of the flight of an Ariane 5 rocket with the Intelsat 30 and Arsat 1 satellites. Text updates will appear below automatically; there is no need to reload the page.
News
‘Big three’ nab commercial launch contracts
SpaceX announced Monday two new Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rocket missions from Cape Canaveral, Arianespace said it cinched a contract to launch a Japanese TV broadcasting satellite, and International Launch Services revealed a deal to launch a Spanish telecommunications payload, ending a drought in commercial Proton launch orders.
Mission Reports
Arianespace targets early 2021 for Vega return-to-flight
Presenting the results of an inquiry into a European Vega rocket failure last month, officials said Friday that misleading instructions and inadequate preflight checks caused teams to overlook wrongly-installed cables on the launcher’s upper stage steering system. Arianespace aims to resume Vega launches before the end of March.
Ariane 5
Live coverage: Ariane 5 lifts off with two U.S.-built satellites
Two communications satellites built in California launched Saturday aboard the third Ariane 5 flight of the year after unacceptable upper level winds kept the rocket grounded Friday. The European rocket lifted off from French Guiana at 2138 GMT (5:38 p.m. EDT) with payloads for DISH Network and BRI, a major Indonesian bank.