images

Ariane 5 ECA lift off. 05/2006

by

ESA/CNES/Arianespace/Novapix

Reference

e-leu12-01200

Date

2007-11-30

An Ariane 5 ECA launcher lifts off from the Ariane Launch Complex no.3 (ELA-3) of the Guiana Space Centre, Europe's space port, on May 27, 2006. On this flight (V171), two communication satellites were lifted to orbit: SatMex 6, and Thaicom 5. The Ariane 5 ECA is a major upgrade of the Ariane 5 design to increase its payload capacity to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) to 10 metric tons compared to 6.8 tons for the initial Ariane 5G version.