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Ariane 5 Blasts Three Spacecraft Into Orbit

By Staff Writer | September 29, 2003

      Arianespace succeeded in launching a three-satellite payload aboard its Ariane 5G rocket on Sept. 27 at 8:14 p.m. local time (23:14 GMT, 7:14 p.m. EDT) from the Spaceport in French Guiana. The rocket carried the European Space Agency‘s SMART-1 lunar exploration probe, Eutelsat‘s e-BIRD broadband service satellite, and the Indian Space Research Organisation‘s INSAT 3E telecommunications/video broadcast spacecraft. The spacecraft were placed into geosynchronous transfer orbit. The ESA space probe will continue on a trajectory that will take it to the moon.