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Mission Update

Assembly begins for the fifth Ariane 5 of 2008

June 30, 2008

Launch team members oversee the cryogenic central stage’s positioning over the mobile launch table inside the Launcher Assembly Building at Europe’s Spaceport.

The Launcher Assembly Building at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana is alive with activity for the fifth time in 2008, as the newest Ariane 5 takes shape for an upcoming Arianespace dual-payload mission.

This heavy-lift Ariane 5 ECA is part of the seven missions planned in 2008 – the busiest year of flight activity for Arianespace’s workhorse launch vehicle since its 1999 commercial introduction.

Assembly activity began with the removal of Ariane 5’s cryogenic core stage from its protective shipping container.  The stage was then raised to the vertical position, and positioned over the mobile launch table.  This prepares it for the mating of the vehicle’s two solid rocket motors and installation of the cryogenic upper stage.

The Spaceport’s infrastructure is tailored to support Arianespace’s sustained launch rate.  As this new Ariane 5 begins its build-up process in the Launcher Assembly Building, another is completing pre-launch preparations in the nearby Final Assembly Building.  The other Ariane 5 is set for a rollout this Thursday to the Spaceport’s ELA-3 launch zone, where it is to lift off on Friday, July 4 with the dual payload of the ProtoStar I and BADR-6 telecommunications satellites.