Intelsat pair ready for launch
August 12, 2016
By Chris Forrester
Intelsat has two satellites riding on an upcoming launch by rocket company Arianespace from French Guiana.
On August 24th, a giant Ariane-5 rocket is scheduled to carry Intelsat-33e and Intelsat 36 into geostationary transfer orbit. It will be Ariane’s overall sixth mission this year, and the fourth by the heavyweight Ariane rocket.
Intelsat 33e – the first of the two payloads to arrive in French Guiana – has completed its initial checkout, and during preparations, was installed on the launch vehicle’s SYLDA dual-passenger dispenser system, and which automatically discharges the satellite from the rocket’s payload bay. The latter step was performed in the Spaceport’s Final Assembly Building and positions Intelsat 33e for the upper slot of Ariane 5’s payload arrangement. I-33e was built by Space Systems/Loral.
As the second spacecraft of the next-generation Intelsat EpicNG series, Intelsat 33e – which was produced by Boeing – integrates one of the most advanced commercially-available digital payloads in the world. The first Intelsat EpicNG satellite, Intelsat 29e, was successfully delivered to geostationary transfer orbit on an Ariane 5 mission earlier this year in January.