An Ariane 5 rocket will make its fourth flight of the year Wednesday, hauling two communications satellites into orbit for Inmarsat, Hellas-Sat and India’s space agency.
The nearly 180-foot-tall (55-meter) launcher will blast off from Kourou, French Guiana, at 2059 GMT (4:59 p.m. EDT; 5:59 p.m. French Guiana time) with the Hellas-Sat 3/Inmarsat S EAN and GSAT 17 communications satellites.
Made in France by Thales Alenia Space and in India by the Indian Space Research Organization, respectively, Hellas-Sat 3/Inmarsat S EAN and GSAT 17 will ride aboard the Ariane 5 in a dual-payload stack. The larger of the two satellites, Hellas-Sat 3/Inmarsat S EAN, will deploy first, followed by separation of GSAT 17 around 42 minutes after liftoff.
The rocket will target an orbit ranging from 155 miles (250 kilometers) to 22,236 miles (35,786 kilometers), with a tilt of 3 degrees to the equator.
Date source: Arianespace
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