Ariane 5 has delivered two telecom satellites, SGDC and Koreasat-7, into their planned orbits. Arianespace announced the liftoff at 21:50 GMT (23:50 CEST, 18:50 local time) yesterday from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. The mission lasted about 36 minutes. Brazil's SGDC Geostationary Satellite for Communications and Defense, with a launch mass of 5735 kg, was the first to be released after about 28 minutes. The 3680 kg Koreasat-7 was released eight minutes later. Read more
Ariane5 with Koreasat 7 scheduled launch from Kourou at 20:31 UT, 4th May 2017
The new launch date for VA236 is set on May 4, 2017, as early as possible within the following launch window:
4:31 to 7:19 pm, in Washington DC 5:31 to 8:19 pm, local time in Kourou, French Guiana 5:31 to 8:19 pm, in Brasilia, Brazil, 20:31 to 23:19, UTC 10:31 pm to 1:19 am, in Paris, France, during the night of May 4 to 5 5:31 to 8:19 am, in Seoul, South Korea, on May 5.
VA236 will use an Ariane 5 ECA to orbit two satellites: SGDC for the company VISIONA Tecnologia Espacial S.A. on behalf of the Brazilian operator Telebras S.A., and KOREASAT-7 for the South Korean operator ktsat. Read more
Spaceport protest delays rocket launch in French Guiana
The launch of a French rocket from a space centre in French Guiana has been delayed after workers erected barricades as part of a labour dispute. The Ariane 5 rocket was due to take a South Korean satellite and a Brazilian satellite into orbit later on Tuesday. But the booster could not be rolled to the launch pad because of the protest at the Guiana Space Center over what workers for energy company EDF said were "deplorable working conditions". Read more