Both satellite passengers for an Ariane 5 flight planned in early 2014 have arrived at French Guiana, clearing the way for Arianespace's start-up of payload preparations following their transfer by road to the Spaceport.

The two spacecraft - ABS-2 and Athena-Fidus - arrived separately at Felix Eboue Airport, located near the capital city of Cayenne, with each delivered this month using a chartered An-124 cargo jetliner.

Produced by Space Systems/Loral in Palo Alto, California, ABS-2 is based on the company's 1300-series platform - designed to provide multiple services for global satellite operator ABS, including direct-to-home and cable television distribution, VSAT (very-small-aperture terminal) services, data networks and telecommunications across four continents.

It has a designed mission life of 15 years or more, and will operate from ABS' prime orbital location of 75 deg. East longitude after its deployment by Ariane 5.

The satellite has been outfitted with 89 active C-band, Ku-band and Ka-band transponders across 10 different beams. These include six dedicated Ku-Band beams for direct-to-home television services in the Eastern Hemisphere and C-Band beams for Africa and Southeast Asia connectivity requirements.

Its Ka-Band beam is positioned over the Middle East and North African region to provide service for commercial and military applications.

Athena-Fidus is a French-Italian telecommunications satellite that uses state-of-the-art civil broadband Internet technologies. Funded jointly by French space agency CNES, French defense procurement agency DGA, Italian space agency ASI and the Italian Ministry of Defense, it will provide communications services to both armed forces and civil security agencies in France and Italy.

Program prime contractor Thales Alenia Space produced Athena-Fidus using its Spacebus 4000B2 platform, with the satellite equipped to deploy the latest civil telecom standards - DVB-RCS and DVB-S2 - to ensure optimum transmission capacity and service availability. It will weigh more than 3,000 kg. at launch, and has a design life exceeding 15 years.