Arianespace’s 8th Mission

Arianespace has successfully launched STELLAT 5 built by Alcatel Space for the new Stellat joint venture, and N-STAR c, produced by American manufacturers Orbital Sciences Corp. and Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems for Japanese telco NTT DoCoMo. The successful launch was announced on July 5. Flight 153 was Arianespace’s eight successful mission in 2002.

Stellat 5 is the first satellite to be deployed by Stellat, a joint venture formed by France Telecom and Europe*Star. It will be positioned at 5 degrees West. It has 35 Ku-band and 10 C-band transponders. N STAR c, a mobile telephony satellite, has 20 S-band transponders and 1 C-band transponder, enabling NTT DoCoMo to expand its mobile telephony service offerings in Japan.

In a separate announcement, Arianespace announced that it had been selected by Alenia Spazio to launch the ATLANTIC BIRD 1 satellite. ATLANTIC BIRD 1 will be positioned at 12.5 degrees West and have 24 active Ku-band transponders, as well an operating lifetime of 15 years. The satellite will be used and operated by Eutelsat as part of its fleet.