Arianespace Ariane 44LP Astra 1B & Meteosat 5
Ariane 44LP
Status
Success
Date
2 MAR 1991
23:36
Mission Overview
Astra 1B was the second of the Astra communications satellites launched and operated by SES (Société Européenne des Satellites). It was believed to have been launched in a faulty condition, and suffered a thruster failure early in its life, causing minor drift, meaning that it became permanently difficult to obtain a steady lock on the satellite. This was most notable on analogue transmissions where the picture would move from clear to carrying sparklies and back again.
Rocket
Ariane 44LP
Mission Type
Communications
Orbit
Geostationary Orbit
Stages
2
Livestream
Not availableRocket Details
The Ariane 4 was an expendable space launch system, developed by the Centre national d'études spatiales (CNES), the French space agency, for the European Space Agency (ESA). It was manufactured by ArianeGroup and marketed by Arianespace. Since its first flight on 15 June 1988 until the final flight on 15 February 2003, it attained 113 successful launches out of 116 total launches.
Height
58.4 m
Diameter
3.8 m
Launch Mass
420 T
Thrust
5,270 kN
