Payloads for next Ariane 5 flight mated to launcher

PARIS, July 19 (Xinhua) -- Europe's space giant Arianespace announced Friday that two payloads for its next Ariane 5 flight have been mated to the launcher.

"The heavy-lift Ariane 5 for Arianespace's July 25 mission from French Guiana is now complete following integration of its full payload stack', consisting of the Alphasat and INSAT-3D spacecraft," Arianespace said in its latest statement.

The company said following the Alphasat being lowered into place over INSAT-3D, a new series of preparation set to begin, including the launch readiness review on July 23, followed by Ariane 5's rollout to the ELA-3 launch zone the next day, and subsequent countdown to the July 25 liftoff during an-hour and 18-minute launch window that opens at 4:53 p.m. local time (0953 GMT) in French Guiana.

For the upcoming mission, Ariane 5 is to deliver a payload lift performance of more than 9,750 kg, including a combined total of some 8,770 kg for Alphasat and INSAT-3D, plus the launcher's SYLDA dual-passenger dispenser system and satellite integration hardware.

Riding as the upper payload in Ariane 5's stack is Europe's Alphasat telecommunications spacecraft, which will be released at approximately 27 minutes after liftoff.

"Developed by Astrium, it is the result of a large-scale public-private partnership involving Inmarsat and the European Space Agency (ESA), and represents the first flight model of Europe's new Alphabus high capacity satellite platform," said Arianespace.

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