ESA Ariane 5 Launch and Orbital insertion of Intelsat 30 and ARSAT-1

On 16 October 2014, Ariane 5 flight VA220 lifted off from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana to place two telecommunications satellites, Intelsat-30/DLA-1 and Arsat-1, into their planned transfer orbits. 

Credit: ESA

An Ariane 5 has lifted off from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana and delivered two telecom satellites, Intelsat-30/DLA-1 and Arsat-1, into their planned orbits.

Launch of flight VA220 occurred on 16 October at 21:44 GMT (23:44 CEST, 18:44 local time).

Intelsat-30/DLA-1, with a mass of about 6320 kg and mounted with its launch vehicle adapter on top of Ariane's Sylda dual-payload carrying structure, was the first to be released 28 minutes into the mission.


On 16 October 2014, Ariane 5 flight VA220 lifted off from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana and delivered two telecom satellites, Intelsat-30/DLA-1 and Arsat-1, into their planned orbits. 

Credit: ESA/Arianespace

Following a series of burns controlled by Ariane's computer, the Sylda structure encasing Arsat-1 was then jettisoned. Arsat-1, with a mass of 2973 kg, was released into its own transfer orbit about six minutes after the first satellite.

Intelsat-30/DLA-1, owned and operated by Intelsat, will be positioned at 95°W longitude in geostationary orbit to provide telecommunications and direct-to-home broadcast services to Latin America. The satellite has a design life of about 15 years.

Arsat-1, owned by Arsat in Argentina, will be positioned at 71.8°W in geostationary orbit to provide direct-to-home television, Internet access services, data transmission and IP telephony to Argentina and neighbouring countries. It has a design life of 15 years.

The payload mass for this launch was 10 083 kg. The satellites totalled 9293 kg, with payload adapters and carrying structures making up the rest.

Flight VA220 was the 76th Ariane 5 mission.

Argentina launches its first home-built satellite, ARSAT-1

In this photo provided by Service Optique CSG, the Ariane 5 lifts-off carrying the Argentine made ARSAT-1 geostationary communications satellite, from Kourou, French Guiana, Thursday, Oct. 16, 2014. 

According the Argentine authorities the satellite will offer Internet, cell phone and television signals for the next 15 years for Argentina, Uruguay and Chile. 

Credit: AP Photo/Service Optique CSG

Argentina launched its first domestically built communications satellite Thursday.

The ARSAT-1 satellite is the first to be constructed with local technology in Latin America.

It was built by INVAP, a crew of about 500 scientists over seven years at a cost of $250 million.

The satellite was launched from a base in French Guiana and is to orbit 22,000 miles (36,000 kilometers) above Earth.

"ARSAT-1 is on its way to space. What a thrill," President Cristina Fernandez said shortly after the launch via her Twitter account.

ARSAT-1 is designed to provide digital television and cellphone services to Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay for the next 15 years.

It's also expected to improve telephone and Internet connections in remote places, including for scientists working in the Antarctic region.

Fernandez has said that through ARSAT-1, Argentina joins an elite group that is able to build these types of satellites.

Other nations with this capability include European Union states, the United States, Russia, China, India, Israel and Japan.