Ariane-5 launch set for Wednesday after strike ended

CAYENNE, French Guiana — An Ariane-5 rocket launch that was postponed because of a strike at the Kourou space centre in French Guiana is to go ahead on Wednesday after the dispute was resolved, officials said. The National Centre for Space Studies (CNES) said that the deal to end the strike "includes an immediate resumption of work by Telespazio."

The strike launched by Telezpazio, a business at the base specialised in radars, delayed Tuesday's launch that would have put two telecommunications satellites into orbit. "Without the radar, we can't follow the launch all along its trajectory," said Joel Barre, head of the Guianese Space Centre.

A new launch window has now been set for Wednesday between 2138 GMT and 2302 GMT. The strike was called after unions demanded a pay rise and a bonus for working on Sundays. The launch is to be Arianespace's fifth this year, putting two television satellites into orbit: Arabsat 5C covering the Middle East and North Africa and SES-2 covering North America and the Caribbean.

COUNTDOWN UNDERWAY. Arianespace says it has resolved the labor dispute to permit another launch attempt tonight for the Ariane 5 rocket, the 204th Ariane mission since 1979. After a labor strike scuttled plans to launch an Ariane 5 rocket from South America on Tuesday, officials say they have ensured all is ready for another try tonight at 2138 GMT (2:38 p.m. PDT/5:38 p.m. EDT).

Rocket: Ariane 5 ECA
Flight: VA 204
Payload: Arabsat 5C (Arabsat; Saudi Arabia), SES 2 (SES Americom; Luxembourg)
Payloads Prime Contractors: Arabsat (Astrium and Thales Alenia Space); SES 2 (Orbital Sciences Corp.)
Date: 21 September 2011
Time: 2:38 p.m. PDT/5:38 p.m. EDT (9:38 p.m. GMT)
Launch window: 2:38 p.m. - 4:02 p.m. PDT
Site: ELA-3, Kourou, French Guiana

Live Launch Coverage (Webcast begins at 2:23 p.m.)

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SpaceFlightNow.com Mission Status Center

Launch PR Kit
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Next scheduled launch after this one will be:

Rocket: Minotaur 4
Payload: TacSat 4 (Navy comm sat)
Date: Sept. 27, 2011
Window: 8:45 a.m. PDT (7:45 a.m. Alaska time)
Site: Kodiak Launch Complex, Alaska

Latest SpaceFlightNow.com Minotaur 4 updates

ok...i been a union puke on a launch site before....

You don’t wanna launch this close to strike settlement

good chance alotta assembly & test was done by non-union types
union guys don’t want folks thinkin’ anybody can do that stuff....

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