Ariane flight VA253


Ariane flight VA253 is a planned rocket launch conducted by multinational launch service provider Arianespace.

Payload

American satellite operator Intelsat and Japanese Broadcasting Satellite System Corporation are the customers for Ariane flight VA253. Galaxy 30 is a communications satellite built by Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems on the GEOStar-2 platform for Intelsat. It has C-band, Ku-band, Ka-band payloads, as well as a WAAS payload for a mass of. Built in satellite manufacturing facility in Dulles, Virginia, it will primarily serve video markets in North America. As per Intelsat/Arianespace contract announced in January 2018, Galaxy 30 will share the upper berth of the Ariane 5 ECA rocket with MEV-2, which is Northrop Grumman second satellite servicing vehicle, identical to MEV-1. With a mass of, it will begin a five-year mission to extend lifetime of Intelsat 10-02. MEV-2 received FCC authorization on 25 March 2020. BSAT-4b is the second communications satellite of the fourth generation B-SAT, built by SSL on its SSL 1300 platform. It has 24 Ku-band transponders and mass of.

Flight

Ariane flight VA253 was planned to launch in June 2020, however, launch campaign activities were significantly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. To prevent the spread of the epidemic in French Guiana and protect Centre Spatial Guyanais employees, all launch activities were suspended on 16 March 2020. Operations for Vega flight VV16 and Ariane 5 flight VA253 could not resume until 28 April 2020. VA253 activities were listed among the top priorities at the reopening of the Guiana Space Center on. The launch is currently scheduled for end of July 2020. The flight should place the satellites into a geostationary transfer orbit from which they will eventually be placed into geostationary orbit through their own propulsion.
The flight was again aborted on July 28, 2020, due to a "red" warning in the system.

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