Fourth Ariane 5 launch in 2013, 57th success in a row: Arianespace continues to offer the world’s most reliable launch service! Today’s successful mission, the 57th in a row for the European launcher, once again proves the reliability and availability of the Ariane 5 launch system. It also confirms that Arianespace continues to set the standard for guaranteed access to space for all operators, including national and international space agencies, private industry and governments.

Following the announcement of the orbital injection of the EUTELSAT 25B/Es’hail 1 and GSAT-7 satellites, Arianespace Chairman and CEO Stéphane Israël said: “The 57th successful launch in a row of Ariane 5, the 80th for our family of the Ariane 5, Soyuz and Vega launchers, once again confirms the unrivaled reliability of our launch systems. I would like to thank Astrium, as the industrial prime contractor for Ariane 5, along with all other manufacturers involved, and the CNES teams at the Guiana Space Center, for working with us to make this achievement possible. On behalf of everybody at Arianespace, I would like to express our pride this evening in rising to the challenge of meeting the requirements of our three customers, Es’hailSat, Eutelsat and ISRO. Es’hailSat, like 80% of all new players in the telecommunications satellite market, chose Arianespace to orbit their first satellite. I realize that this is a particularly important moment for Es’hailSat, and for its CEO, Ali Ahmed al-Kuwari. Eutelsat and ISRO are both long-standing partners to Arianespace, reaching back over 30 years, and they continue to entrust us with their satellites year after year, within the scope of partnerships that truly honor us. I would like to express my sincere thanks to both of these companies; this latest successful launch shows that they made the right choice by selecting Arianespace! I would also like to personally thank Michel de Rosen, CEO of Eutelsat, and S.K. Shivakumas, Director of the ISRO Satellite Centre, for sharing this launch with us. And last but not least, I would like to thank Nicole Bricq, French Minister of Foreign Trade, and Her Excellency Dr. Hessa Al-Jaber, Qatari Minister for Information and Communication Technology, for kindly agreeing to join us this evening in the Jupiter control room at the Guiana Space Center.” 

A launch for two long-standing customers, Eutelsat and ISRO, and one new customer, Es’hailSat

The EUTELSAT 25B/Es’hail 1 satellite is a joint program by the Qatari operator Es’hailSat and the European operator Eutelsat. It is the first geostationary telecommunications satellite launched for Qatar, and the 23rd launched by Arianespace for customers in Africa and the Middle East. It carries on the collaboration between Arianespace and Eutelsat that started in June 1983, and therefore marks its 30th anniversary this year.

Two-thirds of the Eutelsat fleet have been launched by Ariane rockets, and Eutelsat 25B is the 27th Eutelsat satellite launched by Arianespace. GSAT-7 is the 17th ISRO satellite to use the European launcher since the Apple experimental satellite was launched on flight L03 in 1981. Arianespace has also launched two other satellites designed by India, for the operators Eutelsat and Avanti Communications. The partnership between Arianespace and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) reaches back to the creation of Arianespace, and has allowed the two companies to define highly effective joint working methods, as shown by today’s launch, just a month after the launch of Insat-3D, a meteorological satellite developed by ISRO, by an Ariane 5 ECA from the Guiana Space Center on July 25.

EUTELSAT 25B/Es’hail 1 and GSAT-7 mission at a glance

The mission was carried out by an Ariane 5 ECA launcher from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. Liftoff was on Thursday, August 29, 2013 at 5:30 pm local time in Kourou (4:30 pm in Washington, D.C., 20:30 UT, 10:30 pm in Paris, 11:30 pm in Doha, and on Friday, August 30 at 2:00 am in Bangalore). This was the 215th Ariane launch, with Astrium as industrial prime contractor. The launch vehicle boosted 9,776.5 kg into geostationary transfer orbit, including 8,960 kg for the two satellites.

EUTELSAT 25B/Es’hail 1 was designed and built by Space Systems/Loral in California and weighed 6,310 kg at liftoff. The EUTELSAT 25B/Es’hail 1 satellite is a joint program of Es-hailSat and Eutelsat to operate a high-power satellite at 25.5 degrees East, an orbital position that has been used for many years. This new satellite will serve booming markets in the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia. It will replace EUTELSAT 25C to bolster the power and coverage provided from this orbital position. In addition to ensuring Ku-band service continuity for Eutelsat and providing Ku-band capacity for Es’hailSat, the satellite will offer the two partners their initial Ka-band capacity, paving the way for new business development opportunities.

GSAT-7. Designed, developed and integrated by ISRO in Bangalore, southern India, GSAT-7 is dedicated to telecommunications services for the Indian government. It weighed 2,650 kg at launch and offers a design life exceeding seven years. GSAT-7 carries Ku, C, S and UHF band transponders. Positioned at 74 degrees East, its coverage zone encompasses the entire Indian subcontinent.