Ground crews towed a towering Ariane 5 rocket to its launch pad in French Guiana on Wednesday for final flight preparations before Thursday’s launch with spacecraft for two of the world’s top commercial satellite operators.
A new spin-stabilized European weather observatory hitched a ride into space aboard an Ariane 5 rocket Wednesday, accompanying a Brazilian television broadcasting craft on a launch from French Guiana into Earth orbit.
A Brazilian television broadcasting satellite and Europe’s next weather observatory packaged atop an Ariane 5 rocket lifted off at 2142 GMT (5:42 p.m. EDT) Wednesday from Kourou, French Guiana.
Blasting into space atop an Ariane 5 launcher, two communications satellites started missions Sunday to beam broadband services to ships, airplanes and offshore oil rigs for a commercial Norwegian operator and relay signals for the Italian and French armed forces.
Rolling out for its first liftoff of the year, an Ariane 5 rocket journeyed out of a launcher assembly building Thursday and rode railroad tracks to its launch pad in French Guiana with two European communications satellites.