KOUROU, French Guiana --- Arianespace yesterday placed the Spot 5 Earth observation satellite into Sun-synchronous orbit for the CNES French national space agency. This was Ariane's sixth successful mission of 2002, and it carried the 200th satellite launched by Arianespace.
"Arianespace has once again demonstrated its ability to support all types of missions, whether commercial or governmental," said Arianespace Chairman and CEO Jean-Marie Luton. "This successful mission illustrates the fundamental role played by CNES in Europe, with its development of access to space and its support of applications that benefit all of us on a daily basis. I would also like to include Belgium and Sweden, whose commitment to programs such as Spot and Ariane ensure the success of a real pan-European space policy."
Luton congratulated the Ariane teams in Europe and French Guiana, "whose efforts enabled us to carry out six launches in less than 100 days, once again reflecting Ariane's unrivaled organizational efficiency."
Spot 5: observing the Earth
The Spot remote sensing system has been in operation for over 15 years, and Arianespace has launched all four of the previous Spot satellites: Spot 1 in February 1986, Spot 2 in January 1990, Spot 3 in September 1993 and Spot 4 in March 1998.
Spot 5 incorporates major upgrades from the earlier Spot-series satellites, with several new instruments to improve the quality of images and services offered to customers.
Spot 5 also carries two payloads: Vegetation 2 for wide-area monitoring of the Earth's plant cover, and Doris, an orbital position-determination and location system.
Approved in 1978, the Spot program was conceived by CNES and is led by France in collaboration with Belgium and Sweden. It comprises a family of satellites, ground control and programming facilities, as well as ground-based receiving stations and image processing centers.
Idefix for amateur radio operators
Flight 151 also carried an auxiliary payload called Idefix (a French name from the Asterix comic strip) for the French AMSAT amateur radio and satellite association. Idefix was installed on the Ariane's third stage, where it will remain attached during its orbital life of 25 to 60 days. Idefix is an educational payload involving the transmission of digital telemetry and recorded voice messages. The payload was the 39th auxiliary passenger orbited by Ariane, and it will be activated about 15 days after launch.
Upcoming launch
Arianespace's next mission will be Flight 152, which is scheduled for June 5, 2002. An Ariane 44L version of the Ariane 4 family will boost Intelsat 905 into geostationary transfer orbit.
Flight 151 at a glance:
70th successful Ariane 4 launch in a row
Flight 151 was carried out by an Ariane 42P, the Ariane 4 version equipped with two solid-propellant strap-on boosters. Liftoff from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana was on May 3, 2002 at 10:31 p.m. local time in Kourou (01H31 GMT on May 4, 9:31 p.m. on May 3 in Washington, D.C., and on May 4 at 3:31 a.m. in Paris).
Arianespace is the commercial launch services leader, holding more than 50 percent of the international market for satellites launched to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO). Created in 1980 as the world's first commercial space transportation company, Arianespace has signed contracts for the launch of more than 240 satellite payloads.
