06 August 2010
On 4 August 2010, an Ariane 5 rocket blasted into space, from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, on a mission to place two telecommunications satellites, Nilesat-201 and Rascom-QAF1R, into geostationary orbits.
This was the 52nd Ariane 5 flight. The targeted injection orbit varied in altitude between 250 km and 35,919 km.
The satellites were successfully inserted into their transfer orbits, about 28 minutes and 32 minutes, after launch, respectively.
Nilesat 201, Egypt’s fourth artificial satellite, will be positioned in a geostationary orbit, at an altitude of about 35,800 km, over the equator, and will provide broadcast services to North Africa and the Middle East. It weighed over 3 tonnes at launch.
Nilesat 101 is Egypt’s first satellite. It was launched on 28 April 1998, aboard an Ariane 4 rocket. Its expected lifetime is 15 years. Nilesat 102, Egypt’s second satellite, was launched on 17 August 2000, by an Ariane 4 launcher. It is identical to Nilesat 101.
References
European Space Agency Website
Arianespace Website
Nilesat Website
Wikipedia