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Rocket: Ariane 5 ECA Payload: Eutelsat 25B & GSAT 7 Launch date: August 29, 2013 Launch window: 2030 GMT (4:30 p.m. EDT) Site: ELA-3, Guiana Space Center, Kourou French Guiana Watch the launch at these links. www.spaceflightnow.com/ariane/va215/status.html or http://arianespace.tv/

Rocket: Ariane 5 ES Payload: ATV 4 Date: June 5, 2013 Time: 2152:11 GMT (5:52:11 p.m. EDT/2:52 p.m. EDT) Site: ELA-3, Guiana Space Center, Kourou French Guiana Docking: June 15 @ 1348 GMT Undocking: Oct. 28

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...

Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics Hearing Charter: Future Markets for Commercial Space Future Markets for Commercial Space April 20, 2005 9:30 a.m. to 12:00 noon 2318 Rayburn House Office Building Purpose: On Wednesday, April 20, at 9:30 a.m., the Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics will hold a hearing to examine the future of the commercial space market and the government's role in that future. Last year, the President signed into law the Science Committee's Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act, which dealt with regulating one aspect of commercial space - private, human suborbital flights, which are generally intended for space tourism....

Feb. 12 -- Arianespace, the European rocket launch venture, said it launched its first Ariane 5 ECA rocket, more than a year after a failed initial attempt to fire off the model, the group's most powerful. The rocket, sent up from Arianespace's Kourou, French Guyana, space center, put two satellites into orbit. They are the XTAR- EUR orbiter, the first commercial satellite to deliver X-band services that will provide government and military communications for the U.S. and Spain, and a dummy payload for the European Space Agency. The group's newest rocket will help Evry, France-based Arianespace guard dominance in the...

The satellite industry will hold its breath on Saturday as Europe tries for the second time to fly its super-rocket - the "10-tonne" Ariane 5-ECA.The 50m-high (160ft) vehicle exploded four minutes into its first mission in 2002, destroying a telecoms payload valued at 600 million euros (£410m). Rocket operator Arianespace believes it has fixed the cause of the failure and is betting its future on the ECA. The vehicle is set to become Europe's primary launcher in the decade ahead. Lift-off from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana is timed for a launch window that runs from 1949 to...

French spy satellite put into orbit PARIS — A Ariane rocket roared into space from a pad in French Guyana yesterday, placing into orbit a surveillance satellite expected to give France's military new abilities to spy worldwide. The satellite and six smaller scientific ones were placed into orbit about an hour after liftoff. The Helios 2A military satellite, the rocket's main cargo, is to rotate in sun-synchronous orbit about 435 miles above the Earth. Among expected functions, the satellite is to monitor possible weapons proliferation, prepare and evaluate military operations and digitally map terrain for cruise-missile guidance, the French Defense...

Arianespace Raises Specter of a Europe Without Ariane 5 Source: Space News, March 17, 2003, page 8 The Arianespace launch consortium has raised the possibility that it could abandon its Ariane 5 rocket - the company's only product - as a result of its financial crisis following the collapse of the commercial launch market and Ariane 5's difficulties. According to industry officials, that very scenario - that Europe would walk away from the launch business that its governments have spent several billion dollars to develop - was evoked by Arianespace management March 5 during a meeting with employee representatives. European...

Europe's new heavy-lift rocket has failed on its maiden flight. The Ariane 5-ESCA blasted off from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana at 1921 (2221 GMT) local time and blew up three minutes later. We have already known failures, we will know more Jean-Yves Le Gall, Arianespace No explanation for the loss has yet been given by officials from Arianespace, the rocket's operators, who have scheduled a media conference for Thursday. It is not clear whether the vehicle suffered a catastrophic failure or controllers noticed something was wrong and took the painful decision to destroy the rocket. Main stage...