Ariane 5 Flight VA235 SKY Brasil-1 and Telkom 3S Launch

Arianespace notched another successful mission with the launch of two communication satellites. The dependable Ariane 5 heavy-lift rocket lifted off from the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana at 4:39 p.m. EST (21:39 UTC), at the beginning of the 87-minute launch window, and deployed its pair of passengers – SKY Brasil-1 and Telkom 3S – nearly 40 minutes later. This marks the first Ariane 5 launch of the year for Arianespace and follows their successful Soyuz launch just 17 days prior.

More than 27 minutes after lifting off, the second stage was in a position to deliver the first of its two passengers to the 155-mile (250-kilometer) by 22,205-mile (35,736-kilometer) transfer orbit.

SKY Brasil-1 was the first of the satellites to separate from the SYLDA payload carrier. A couple minutes later, and after SKY Brasil-1 was at a safe distance, SYLDA was jettisoned so that the second satellite – Telkom 3S – would be clear to deploy.

After a 10 minute coast, allowing SYLDA to drift out of the area, the second satellite was released. Telkom 3S, like its SKY Brasil-1 rideshare partner, was now flying free of the launch vehicle.

Both satellites will steadily raise their orbit with their onboard propulsion system and will undergo a set of checkout procedures by the ground crew before being declared operational.

Flight VA235 marks Arianespace’s first Ariane 5 launch of 2017, and the second of a busy 2017 launch manifest for the launch provider. Their next scheduled launch is for their Vega rocket carrying the Sentinel 2B Earth observation satellite. That mission is scheduled for March 6, 2017.