ESA Ariane 5: Second successful launch for 2011

An Ariane 5 launcher has lifted off from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana on its mission to place two telecommunications satellites, Yahsat Y1A and Intelsat New Dawn, into their planned transfer orbits. Flight VA201 was the second Ariane 5 launch of 2011.

Liftoff of the 57th Ariane 5 mission came at 23:37 CEST (21:37 GMT; 18:37 French Guiana) on Friday night.

The target injection orbit had a perigee altitude of 250 km, an apogee altitude at injection of 35 962 km and an inclination of 6 degrees.

The satellites were accurately injected into their transfer orbits about 27 minutes and 35 minutes after liftoff, respectively.

Yahsat Y1A will be positioned above the equator at 52.5E. It will provide innovative broadband solutions for Internet, business data and high-definition television services to institutional and commercial customers in the Middle East, Africa, Europe and Southeast Asian.

Intelsat New Dawn, to be positioned over 32.8E, will offer a wide range of services to Africa, including telephony, Internet, media and data networks.

The payload mass for this launch was 10 064 kg; the satellites totalled 8965 kg, with payload adapters and dispensers making up the additional 1099 kg.

With a total mass of over 10 t, it is the heaviest payload ever launched by an Ariane 5 ECA. This was made possible by detailed post-flight analyses to fully exploit the propulsion potential of each stage. Further performance increases are in the pipeline to keep up with the trend towards heavier telecom satellites.

Arianespace and Europe's Spaceport are planning four more Ariane launches in 2011, maintaining the heavy-lift vehicle's flight rate.