The "10-ton" Ariane 5 moves to the Final Assembly Building

Flight 164 - September 22, 2004

The "10-ton" Ariane 5 moves to the Final Assembly Building


The launcher for Flight 164 is spending its first full day in the
Spaceport's Ariane 5 Final Assembly Building after being transferred from
the integration facility, where it spent the past several weeks during its
build-up.

Flight 164's nearly-complete Ariane 5 was rolled out under partly cloudy
French Guiana skies yesterday, using the dual rail track that connects the
major facilities within the Spaceport's ELA-3 launch complex. The Ariane 5
is installed on its mobile launch table, on which the heavy-lift vehicle
will remain until its liftoff from the ELA-3's launch zone.

Installation of Flight 164's two satellite payloads is to occur inside the
Final Assembly Building, which will be followed by a final validation of the
vehicle and its rollout to the launch zone.

Passengers for Flight 164 are the XTAR-EUR telecommunications satellite, and
an experimental/test payload consisting of the Sloshsat mini satellite
(which is to be separated during the mission), and the Maqsat B2
telemetry/video imaging package (which will remain mated to Ariane 5
throughout the mission).

The Ariane 5 ECA heavy-lift launcher version for Flight 164 was developed to
carry single or multiple payloads weighing up to 10 metric tons, and is
Arianespace's response to the development of increasingly heavy
telecommunications satellites.



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Jacques :-)

www.spacepatches.info