An Inmarsat satellite and an Egyptian craft due for launch on November 25th were again forced to accept a delay from Arianespace, this time because of bad weather.

The previous hold was on November 23rd when a power supply electrical glitch forced a delay with just 20 minutes on the countdown clock remaining.

Arianespace is now targeting the evening of November 26th for a fresh attempt (between 6:09 p.m. and 7:54 p.m. Kourou, French Guiana time, 21:09 and 22:54 Universal / London Time).

Inmarsat’s GX5 is the most powerful of the Global eXpress fleet and will be slotted into the operator’s global high-capacity broadband service and connecting aircraft and maritime clients, as well as ground-based customers in Europe, the MENA region and Asia.

GX5 is a Very High Throughput craft, and such is its efficiency that this one satellite will deliver more capacity than the four previous GX craft (GX1-GX4) combined. GX5 will be located at 11 degrees East.

Additionally, the Inmarsat craft will carry transponders working in the L and S-band as well as its core Ka-band services. The Inmarsat craft will have a fellow-passenger in the form of TIBA-1, a civil and telecoms satellite for Egypt’s government.

Categories: Articles, Satellite