Status Report

The Ariane 4 receives the Brasilsat B4 and Nilesat 102 satellites

By SpaceRef Editor
August 11, 2000
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Flight 131’s Ariane 4 is a complete vehicle today following the installation of its dual-satellite payload atop the launcher.
 
Flight 131’s Ariane 4 is a complete vehicle today following the installation of its dual-satellite payload atop the launcher.
 
Assembled in their launch configuration and protected by the payload fairing, the Brasilsat B4 and Nilesat 102 satellites were lowered into place on the Ariane 4. This activity occurred in the upper level of the service gantry at the ELA-2 launch zone.
 
The dual-payload arrangement for Flight 131 places Brasilsat B4 in the upper passenger position, with Nilesat 102 riding below it. During flight, Brasilsat B4 will be released first, followed by deployment of Nilesat 102.
 
Jean-Marc Artaud, Arianespace’s mission manager for Flight 131, said the launch remains on schedule for Thursday, August 17. This is possible because Arianespace adapted the final phase of the launch campaign to allow a strut to be changed on the Brasilsat B4 spacecraft.
 
The Brasilsat team notified Arianespace in the first week of August that the strut needed to be changed out. A new component was flown to French Guiana by a special charter aircraft on August 3. The hardware replacement began on Friday, August 4 and continued through the weekend.
 
Two days of launch campaign activity were combined into a single day on Monday and Tuesday (August 7 and 8), and a similar compression of the work schedule was achieved at the end of the week. As a result, delays were avoided for the August 17 liftoff while the Brasilsat team was given the time necessary to replace the spacecraft’s strut.
 
Brasilsat B4 was built by Hughes Space & Communications, and is the sixth satellite for Brazil’s national network. After launch, it will be located at an orbital position of 92 deg. West, placing it above the Galapagos archipelago. Arianespace launched all five of the previous Brasilsat satellites.
 
Nilesat 102 is a turnkey delivery in orbit by Astrium for Egypt. Positioned at 7 deg. West to broadcast TV services to North Africa and the Middle East, it will join Nilesat 101 – which was launched by an Ariane 4 in April 1998.

SpaceRef staff editor.