Today's Date:

On August 28th, 2002, Ariane 5 scored a double success when it orbited a dual payload of telecommunication and weather satellites for European customers.

Lifting off from European Spaceport in French Guyana, the Ariane 5 carried Atlantic BirdTM 1 for telecom operator Eutelsat, along with the MSG-1 meteorological spacecraft for Eumetsat weather organization.

The Arianespace launch took place at 6:45 p.m. EDT (22:45 GMT) and both spacecrafts were safely delivered into proper orbit during the next 38 minutes. Flight 155 had been delayed one day following a launch hold due to an indication of a computer dialog problem between the ground network and Ariane 5’s on-board computers.

Claudie Haigneré, French astronaut and French Minister for Research and New Technologies, congratulated engineers from CNES (French space agency), ESA (European Space Agency), Arianespace and the industry. “The new success of Ariane 5 proves on more time the ability of the European industry and the excellence of Ariane”, she also added.