Heavy-lift Ariane rocket puts satellites in orbit

A heavy-lift Ariane-5 rocket put two telecommunications satellites into orbit after a textbook launch from French Guiana late on Wednesday.

The rocket — capable of launching satellite payloads of up to 10 metric tons (22,000 lbs.) —blasted-off from Europe’s space base in Kourou on the northeast coast of South America at 8.46 p.m.

The launch, repeatedly postponed last week because of technical problems, lit up the equatorial night sky and was visible from the ground for over three minutes.

Twenty-seven minutes after launch, the rocket released into a preliminary orbit the Spaceway-2 satellite for U.S. direct-to-home television operator DIRECTV.

Spaceway-2 weighed 6.1 metric tons (13,400 lbs.) at launch and will be used for high definition television throughout the United States. It was built in California by Boeing Space Systems.
Six minutes later, the rocket released Indonesia’s Telkom-2, a 2 ton (4,400 lb.) satellite for Jakarta-based PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia.

Telkom will provide telephone, data and video transmissions across southeast Asia and the Indian sub-continent. It was built in the United States by an industrial team led by Orbital Sciences Corp.

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Because of its geography Indonesia is highly reliant on telecommunications satellites.

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“Indonesia is an archipelago with more than 17,000 islands and 220 million inhabitants,” Garuda Sugardo, Telekomunikasi’s president said after the launch.

“We cannot cover this territory with land lines or cable,” he said.