The authorization for this mission, designated Flight VS16 in Arianespace’s numbering system, was given today following the Launch Readiness Review, which validated the “go” status of Soyuz and its three-metric-ton-category satellite passenger, along with the Spaceport’s infrastructure and network of ground-based tracking stations.

This will be the first of up to 12 missions planned in 2017 by Arianespace, utilizing its medium-lift Soyuz, heavy-lift Ariane 5 and lightweight Vega launchers.

Underscoring Arianespace’s reactivity, the launch services provider is planning six of its 2017 missions during a three-month timeframe from tomorrow’s liftoff of Flight VS16 through the second half of April.

A new Soyuz launch profile from Sinnamary

Flight VS16’s 32-minute mission profile with Hispasat 36W-1 will mark the first use of Soyuz from French Guiana in a GTO payload deployment from French Guiana.

The fully-assembled Soyuz for tomorrow’s mission is on the ELS launch pad, located in the Spaceport’s northwestern sector within the commune of Sinnamary. It is protected by a 53-meter-tall mobile gantry, which will be rolled back at 1 hour, 10 minutes prior to liftoff.

Hispasat 36W-1 is the initial telecommunications satellite built with a SmallGEO series spacecraft platform, developed under the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems (ARTES) program. The satellite was designed and manufactured by Germany’s OHB System AG.

• More details on Soyuz Flight VS16 are available in the launch kit: