[Satellite Today 08-13-08] Arianespace and International Launch Services (ILS) are preparing for launches in the next five days, the companies announced.
    The fifth Ariane 5 mission of 2008 was cleared for an Aug. 14 lift-off after its launch readiness review. The rocket will carry the Superbird-7 and AMC-21 satellites. The launch window runs from 5:44 p.m. to 6:35 p.m. local time in French Guiana.
    Superbird-7, manufactured by Mitsubishi Electric Corp. for Space Communications Corp., is the first commercial satellite made in Japan and will be located at 144 degrees East. SES Americom’s satellite had been scheduled to be placed into orbit by Sea Launch’s Land Launch rocket, but SES Americom switched the satellite to Arianespace following the January 2007 failure of a Sea Launch rocket.
    ILS’s Proton M rocket is scheduled to orbit the Inmarsat-4 F3 satellite for Inmarsat in Aug. from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
    Inmarsat-4 F3 will provide L-band, C-band, Nav-band, and TTC-band communications and complete Inmarsat’s next-generation satellite constellation.
    This will be the first ILS Proton mission since a March launch failure.