No. 1 Story

Telstra adds one million mobile services, but Sensis plummets

Telstra has revealed the addition of almost one million new mobile services in the six months to December 2011, but Sensis revenues plummeted 24 percent in 12 months.

read more

Ariane-5 places Astra 1L and Galaxy 17 into orbit

Science - Space

On Friday, May 4, 2007, an heavy-lift Ariane-5 ECA rocket was launched from French Guiana at 5:29 p.m. CDT (22:29 GMT) and placed two telecommunications satellites into orbit about the Earth.

The Ariane-5 rocket is capable of launching payloads of up to 10 metric tons (tonnes) (22,050 pounds) into space. The May 4th launch of the Astra 1L and Galaxy 17 payloads had a combined weight of 8.6 tonnes (18,960 pounds) and a total payload weight of 9.4 tonnes (20,720 pounds). The Ariane-5 launch of Astra 1L and Galaxy 17 was its heaviest launch to date.

Astra 1L, owned by Luxembourg-based SES Astra and built by U.S.-based Lockheed Martin Space Systems, is a 4.5 tonne satellite designed to give direct-to-home broadcast service throughout Europe. Galaxy 17, owned by U.S.-based Intelsat and built by French-based Thales Alenia Space, is a 4.1 tonne satellite designed to provide telecommunications throughout the United States.

The Ariane-5 rocket is a heavy-launch expendable system designed to send satellites into geostationary transfer orbit (a preliminary orbit between low Earth orbit [LEO] and a geostationary orbit [GEO] and to deliver payloads to low Earth orbit.

The Guiana Space Center near Kourou, French Guiana is operated by the French government’s National Space Study Center (CNES, Centre National d’Études Spatiales) for the European Space Agency (ESA). It has been operational since 1968, and is a desirable place to launch satellites because of its closeness to the equator and its proximity to water.

Loading comments ...

- sponsored feature -

The Death of Traditional BI: What’s Next?

How to Make Business Discovery Work for Your Business IP PABX BUYING GUIDE

Business Discovery takes its cues from consumer apps. Like Google, it encourages us- ers to hunt for and explore data without worrying about or even noticing the underly- ing technology. Their entire experience is working within an intuitive interface to get real-time, self-service results with only minimal training. ...more