During activity in the Spaceport’s S1B clean room facility, ASTRA 2F is raised to the vertical position for removal from its protective shipping container.

Built by the Astrium division of EADS for Luxembourg-based SES, ASTRA 2F was removed from its shipping container in the Spaceport’s S1B clean room, where the relay platform arrived after being delivered to French Guiana yesterday by a chartered cargo jetliner.

ASTRA 2F is a six metric ton-class platform that carries Ku- and Ka-band payloads for the relay of high performance Direct-to-Home (DTH) and next-generation broadband services in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

It will be lofted by Arianespace’s Ariane 5 mission on September 21 along with GSAT-10, which continues its own preparation activity at the Spaceport.  GSAT-10 was produced by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) using the I-3K satellite bus, and has an estimated liftoff mass of 3,400 kg.

This upcoming mission will be the 65th flight of an Ariane 5 from French Guiana, and the fifth so far in 2012 for the workhorse Arianespace heavy-lift launcher.