After uncertainty over the next Ariane launch, Arianespace management has finally confirmed that the next flight will not take place before the second half of June. It has also revealed that the next launch will be the second flight of the ECA “ten-tonner” version.
The fact that V166 initially scheduled for 16 April was cancelled and that Ariane 5 is grounded for at least two months – news given by go-Ariane on 24 March – was confirmed by Jean-Charles Vincent, Arianespace director in Kourou in an interview given to RFO Guyane television and broadcast on 5 April.
“We have encountered a classic problem of satellites not being ready for launch. Whether this is because of technical difficulties, I cannot say, but we have to cope with the situation,” said Vincent who then revealed that the new “ten-tonne” version would soon be flying again.
“Analysis of the flight data of the first qualification V164 flight is near complete, and the results are quite satisfactory, enough for us to envisage the second qualification mission for the start of this summer.” Vincent confirmed that this ECA vehicle will be the next Ariane 5 mission.
go-Ariane understands that the second ECA will have one sole passenger, the Thai broadband satellite iPStar-1 which will weigh in at practically 6.8 tons at liftoff. It is nominally scheduled by Kourou staff for either 17 or 24 June, however European sources indicate that a July launch is more likely.
As for the V166 mission carrying France’s military communications satellite Syracuse-3A and Indonesia’s Telkom-2, the launch campaign is being suspended until July as the Syracuse-3A satellite is not ready for launch. French officials of the country’s Defence Procurement Agency had previously stated that they were having development difficulties requiring further verification of the satellite before it could be delived to the launch site.
According to our sources, the prompt launch of Syracuse-3A remains a national priority. However, if it appears during the coming weeks that the French satellite will still not be ready for a July launch, Telkom-2 will be paired with another satellite, either Spaceway-2 or Galaxy-15.
Looking further ahead, an August launch has been etched in for the second half of the month, with Insat-4A + MSG-2 (still being discussed), and there could be two more launches, one in October and one in December. But as ever, this launch scheduling is tentative and will very likely change.
Updated/maj. 05-04-2005
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