LAUNCH CENTER

Success

Tue Aug 29 1995

Arianespace

N-STAR a

Launch Successful

LAUNCH PREVIEW

Launch Time

(6:41 AM UTC)

Launch Window Start

(6:41 AM UTC)

Launch Window End

(6:41 AM UTC)

RECOVERY OVERVIEW

Location

No Recovery Specified

Type

No Recovery Specified

Rocket Details

Name:

Ariane 44P

Description:

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.

MISSION OVERVIEW

Type: Communications
Two Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) satellites with the highest capacity of any commercial payloads in space were delivered on orbit in 1995 and 1996 and are now providing a variety of fixed and mobile domestic communications services to customers throughout Japan. These satellites, N-STAR-a and -b, replace the service of the SS/L CS satellites, which have now exceeded their expected lifetimes, and will also provide significant new services, which range from providing alternate routes for telephony, to emergency communications, to marine and terrestrial mobile services, and ISDN.

COMPLEX OVERVIEW

Location

Kourou, French Guiana

Pad

Ariane Launch Area 2