14 DAY TRIAL // Eutelsat, one of the largest communications company in Europe, got its latest satellites delivered to orbit on Saturday, via an Ariane 5 rocket, which blasted off at 7.35 p.m. (5:35 p.m. EST), from the European space base in the French Guiana, on the northeast coast of South America. The satellites will be mostly used for digital HD TV transmissions and broadband access to the Internet. The launch went on according to schedule, and the deployment process ended in complete success.
The Ariane 5 rocket is capable of pulling up to ten tonnes of weight from Earth's gravitational field and can deliver its payload in sequences. For instance, during the last launch, the first satellite, Hot Bird 9, was deployed some 27 minutes after take off. The array weighed 4.9 metric tonnes (10,800 lb) at lift-off, yet its release went on without a glitch. The second one, the Indian-built W2M, was released about five minutes afterwards, at the designated altitude, and on the correct orbit.
This type of rocket will most likely be used for a long time by the Europeans, seeing how it gets the job done, and does not costs a pile of money to build. Nevertheless, communications operators warn that, with the global financial crisis knocking on their doors, they will not be able to afford such launches in the future.
Therefore, Arianespace, the manufacturer of Ariene 5, says that it will also try and diversify its offer. That is to say, it will complete the design for a much smaller rocket that will be able to carry small satellites into orbit fast and efficiently. "The end of 2008 was stagnant in terms of orders. In 2009, there will probably be fewer contracts and those contracts will be smaller," Arianespace President Jean-Yves Le Gall told in a news conference.