Flight VA253 was planned to launch in June 2020.[2] However, launch campaign activities were significantly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. To prevent the spread in French Guiana and protect Centre Spatial Guyanais employees, all launch activities were suspended on 16 March 2020.[3][4][5] Operations for Vega flight VV16 and Ariane 5 flight VA253 could not resume until 28 April 2020.[6][7][8] VA253 activities were listed among the top priorities at the reopening of the Guiana Space Center on 11 May 2020.[9] The launch was rescheduled for end of July 2020[7][10][11] to place the satellites into a geostationary transfer orbit from which they will eventually be placed into geostationary orbit through their own propulsion. The flight was again aborted on 28 July 2020, due to a "red" warning in the system, resulting from a sensor problem related to LH2 tank on the core stage.
Star One D2 is a telecommunications satellite equipped with C-, Ku-, Ka- and X-band payloads for high-speed telecommunications, television broadcast and fast broadband in South America, Mexico, Central America, and parts of the Atlantic Ocean.[14] It had a launch mass of approximately 6,190 kilograms (13,650 lb) and a design lifetime of 15 years.[21]
The target orbit was a geosynchronous transfer orbit with an apogee altitude of 250 kilometres (160 mi) and a perigee altitude of 35,726 kilometres (22,199 mi), at an inclination of 3°.[21]
The mission was planned to last 36 minutes and 24 seconds.[21][a]
Maiden flight of Ariane 6. It was a flight test carrying a mass simulator plus a number of small cubesats and other experiments as rideshare payloads. Rocket launched successfully to orbit and upper stage performed a second burn to release cubesats. During attempt to perform a third burn to deorbit the upper stage, the rocket's auxiliary propulsion system failed. This failure prevented the upper stage from relighting.[28][29][30][31]
^Forrester, March 17, 2020, "The next scheduled commercial launches include a Galaxy 30 satellite (for Intelsat) and BSAT-4b (for Japanese satellite operator BSAT) which were scheduled for launch together in June"
^Arianespace, March 16, 2020, "Face à l'épidémie de Covid-19 et pour mettre pleinement en œuvre les mesures décidées par le gouvernement français, les campagnes de lancement en cours au Centre Spatial Guyanais (CSG) sont suspendues".
^CNES, March 16, 2020, "Au Centre Spatial Guyanais, suspension des campagnes de lancement, mise et maintien en sécurité des moyens opérationnels de la base, des lanceurs et des satellites en attente de lancement".
^CNES, March 23, 2020, "All launch preparations have been suspended due to the potential uncertainty and danger of the health situation at a time when great care needs to be taken to prevent the spread of the epidemic in French Guiana".
^CNES, April 28, 2020, "Operations to ready for Vega flight VV16 and Ariane 5 flight VA253 have resumed. Teams stationed permanently in French Guiana have been working to restore the base to its operational configuration since 21 April, applying the necessary distancing and transmission reduction measures."
^ abArianespace, April 29, 2020, "Following the measures presented by the French government on 28 April 2020 as part of the gradual resumption of activity planned from 11 May 2020, and the announcement of a restart of operational activities at the Guiana Space Center, Arianespace confirms its following launch objectives: [...] Flight VA253 – A dual-payload Ariane 5 mission for two customers, Intelsat and B-SAT, at the end of July 2020".
^Henry 2020, "The reopening of the Guiana Space Centre, which suspended operations in mid-March as part of France's effort to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, is expected to allow Arianespace to resume satellite launches from there by mid-June."
^CNES, May 11, 2020, "Priority projects and operations that will be resuming on site at the Guiana Space Centre (CSG) are: the Vega VV16 and Ariane VA253 launch campaigns and the arrival of teams who will be observing a strict 14-day quarantine from 11 and 25 May respectively".
^Forrester, May 1, 2020, "These will be launched on a single Ariane 5 rocket currently scheduled for the end of July".
^Kanayama 2020, "VA253 is set to launch at the end of July".
^Forrester, May 1, 2020, "The next commercial geostationary launch is for Galaxy 30 (3325 kg) for Intelsat on flight VA253 which has two important co-passengers. The first is a slightly larger satellite for Japan's BSat4B (3520 kg). But of perhaps extra importance is the second "space tug" for Northrop Grumman and its rescue craft MEV-2".
^Kanayama 2020, "The next mission for Arianespace after VV16 is VA253 with the Ariane 5 rocket. It will carry the Galaxy-30, MEV-2, and the BSat-4B satellites".
^ abKrebs, Galaxy 30 2020, "Intelsat awarded in January 2018 a contract to build the Galaxy 30 Ku- and Ka-band communications satellite to Orbital ATK, now Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems (NGIS). This satellite will be based on the flight-proven GEOStar-2 platform".
^Northrop Grumman, Galaxy 30, 2020, "The satellite will be designed, built and tested at Northrop Grumman's state-of-the-art satellite manufacturing facility in Dulles, Virginia, and will primarily serve video markets in North America".
^Arianespace, January 9, 2018, "The first launch will carry the Galaxy 30 satellite together with the Orbital ATK Mission Extension Vehicle-2 (MEV-2) as a stacked pair".
^ abKrebs, MEV 1, 2 2020, "A second MEV was ordered for Intelsat in January 2018. MEV-2 is expected to be in service by mid-2020 on a five-year mission [...] MEV-2 will share the upper berth of an Ariane-5ECA+ rocket with Galaxy 30 [...]. The initial mission of MEV-2 is to extend the life of Intelsat 10-02".
^Krebs, BSat 4a, 4b 2020, "BSAT-4a will have 24 Ku-band transponders and will expand the availability of advanced television services such as high definition and 4K/8K ultra-high definition television. BSAT-4a is based on the highly reliable SSL-1300 platform"
^
Guillermard, Véronique (13 August 2024). "Comment Ariane 6 s'est mise en ordre pour doubler la fréquence de ses vols". Le Figaro. Retrieved 27 September 2024. Some 6 rockets are currently at different stages of production, including the first A64, which is due to take off in the second half of 2025 to deploy a batch of more than 30 satellites on behalf of Kuiper, the Amazon constellation.
Krebs, Gunter Dirk (27 March 2020). "Galaxy 30". Gunter's Space Page. Archived from the original on 27 March 2019. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
Krebs, Gunter Dirk (15 March 2020). "BSat 4a, 4b". Gunter's Space Page. Archived from the original on 15 March 2020. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
Krebs, Gunter Dirk (16 March 2020). "MEV 1, 2". Gunter's Space Page. Archived from the original on 16 March 2020. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
"Galaxy 30"(PDF). Northrop Grumman. 12 January 2020. Archived from the original(PDF) on 12 January 2020. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
"SAT-LOA-20191210-00144". FCC. 26 March 2020. Archived from the original on 4 May 2020. Retrieved 4 May 2020. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
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