* Astronomy

On Friday evening, December 21, 2007 at about 21H51 GMT, Arianespace successfully boosted the first ever Pan African communications satellite-RASCOM-QAF1. Built by Thales Alenia Space under a turnkey contract from Rascom-QAF, the Rascom-AQF1 satellite has a design life of 15 years. It will provide telecommunications services especially to rural areas in Africa as will as inter-urban and international phone links, direct TV broadcast and Internet services.

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Arianespace boosted two communications satellites into geostationary transfer orbit (GTO): RASCOM-QAF1, built by Thales Alenia Space for pan-African operator RASCOMSTAR-QAF, and Horizons-2, built by Orbital Sciences Corporation for the operator Horizons 2 Satellite LLC, a joint venture of Intelsat and JSAT.
36th Ariane 5 launch, 22nd success in a row
The latest successful launch of an Ariane 5, its sixth in 2007, confirms that Arianespace's launch Service & Solutions continues to set the standard for all telecom operators worldwide.
Ariane 5 is the only commercial launcher in service today capable of simultaneously launching two payloads, and gives Arianespace customers unrivalled performance, flexibility and competitiveness.
In 2007, Ariane 5 missions performed by Arianespace orbited 12 of the 15 commercial communications satellites that were successfully launched into geostationary orbit. Starsem, an Arianespace subsidiary, carried out three Soyuz launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, orbiting eight satellites for the Globalstar constellation and RADARSAT-2 for the Canadian Space Agency.

The mission was carried out by an Ariane 5 GS launcher from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. Liftoff was on Friday, December 21, at 6:42 pm local time in Kourou (21:42 UT, 10:42 pm in Paris, 4:42 pm in Washington, DC, and on Saturday, December 22 at 6:42 am in Tokyo).

Provisional parameters at injection of the storable-propellant upper stage (EPS) were:
Perigee: 585.2 km for a target of 584.8 km (±4)
Apogee: 35,874 km for a target of 35,865 km (±240)
Inclination: 5.49 degrees for a target of 5.50 degrees (±0.06°)

Built by Thales Alenia Space under a turnkey contract from RASCOMSTAR-QAF, the RASCOM-QAF1 satellite has a design life of 15 years. It will provide telecommunications services to rural areas in Africa, as well as intercity and international phone links, direct TV broadcast and Internet access services. Based on a Spacebus 4000B3 platform, this powerful spacecraft carries 12 Ku-band transponders and eight C-band transponders. It weighed about 3,200 kg at launch and offers 6.4 kW of power. The satellite will be positioned at 2.85 degrees East.
Weighing approximately 2,300 kg at liftoff, the Horizons-2 satellite was built by Orbital Sciences using a STAR platform. It carries 20 high-power Ku-band transponders and will generate 3.5 kW of power. From its geostationary orbit, Horizons-2 will provide occasional use video and IP-based content distribution for the continental United States, the Caribbean and parts of Canada. Likewise, Horizons-2 will support a number of comms-on-the-move applications for government customers. Its unique boomerang beam will support littoral water operations off the U.S. eastern seaboard for homeland security, ship-to-shore communications and cargo tracking. Horizons-2, which has a 15-year design life, will occupy Intelsat's orbital slot at 74 degrees West.

Source Arianespace

Satellite signal will be acquired by Australia tracking station in 30 minutes.