Satellite preparations have taken center stage at the Spaceport in French Guiana as Arianespace readies its fourth Ariane 5 flight of 2008.
As part of this activity, the mission's ProtoStar I payload has been fueled in the S5A hall of the Spaceport's state-of-the-art S5 satellite preparation facility. This large satellite platform is based on Space Systems/Loral's 1300 spacecraft bus, and will provide K-band/C-band relay capacity over Asia.
ProtoStar I is the first in a fleet of relay platforms that Asian satellite services company ProtoStar plans to launch for advanced satellite television services and powerful two-way broadband communications access.
Arianespace's upcoming mission is scheduled for July 4, using an Ariane 5 ECA heavy-lift launcher version. ProtoStar I will be joined by Saudi Arabia's BADR-6 satellite on another of Ariane 5's trademark dual-passenger flights.
This flight follows the Ariane 5's June 12 mission, which delivered Skynet 5C and Turksat 3A into highly accurate geostationary transfer orbits on the workhorse vehicle's 25th consecutive successful mission.
Other Ariane 5 flights performed so far in 2008 were the April 18 dual-payload Ariane 5 ECA mission with Star One C2 and VINASAT-1, and the historic launch of an Ariane 5 ES version on March 9 with Europe's Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) for the International Space Station.
Arianespace is targeting its busiest year of Ariane 5 operations since the launcher's 1999 commercial introduction, with a total of seven missions scheduled during 2008.
