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Ariane 5 ECA, V164 is readied for liftoff. 02/2005

by

ESA/S.Corvaja/Novapix

Reference

e-leu12-01102

Date

2006-10-21

The second Ariane 5 ECA launcher is readied for liftoff from the Ariane Launch Complex no.3 (ELA-3) of the Guiana Space Centre, Europe's space port, on February 12, 2005. On this flight (V164), two satellites were lofted to orbit: XTAR-EUR, a secured communication satellite operated by XTAR LLC of the United States, and ESA's Sloshsat-FLEVO experimental satellite to investigate propellant sloshing in orbiting spacecraft. An instrumented satellite mock-up, MaqSat B2, was also flown but not released to reduce orbital debris.The Ariane 5 ECA is a major upgrade of the Ariane 5 design to increase its payload capacity to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) to 10 metric tons compared to 6.8 tons for the initial Ariane 5G version.