Ariane 5 rockets puts Africa's first satellite into space

by Staff Writers
Kourou, French Guiana (AFP) Dec 21, 2007
An Ariane 5 rocket blasted off here on Friday to put into orbit the first African telecommunications satellite as well as another made by a US-Japanese joint venture, Arianespace said.

The rocket, the 36th launch of an Ariane 5 and the sixth this year, lifted off at 2142 GMT and successfully placed the satellites for the pan-African operator RascomStar-QAF and US-Japanese Horizons 2 Satellite LLC.

The pan-African satellite, weighing 3.2 tonnes, is the first from the continent to be put into space. Several African dignitaries witnessed the launch but Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi, who was expected, was a no show.

The Horizons-2 satellite, weighing 2.3 tonnes, was manufactured by Satellite LLC, a joint venture between Intelsat of the US and Japanese firm JSAT.

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Sixth Ariane 5 Mission Of 2007 Set For December 20 Launch

Kourou, French Guiana (SPX) Dec 20, 2007
Arianespace's sixth mission with the workhorse Ariane 5 in 2007 has been given its go-ahead for liftoff on December 20, following the Launch Readiness Review at the Spaceport in French Guiana. This review is one of the final milestones before every Ariane flight, and it verifies the readiness of all mission elements - including the launcher, its payload, the infrastructure at Europe's Spaceport, and the network of ground tracking stations.

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