Ariane’s triple launch scrubbed for a week
August 4, 2020
By Chris Forrester
The planned flight of an Arianespace rocket from French Guiana carrying three important communications satellites has been further postponed until next week.
“The progress of operations currently underway at the Final Assembly Building has enabled August 14th to be envisioned as the launch date for Ariane Flight 253 (VA253), with the possibility of an optimisation in the process for the mission to be performed one day earlier,” the Arianespace statement said on August 3rd.
The launch was initially scheduled for July 28th but was delayed until July 31st due to the need to carry out additional technical checks. Arianespace said that the launch was being postponed because of a potential problem of one of the liquid hydrogen tank sensors which is being replaced.
The Ariane 5 launch vehicle’s payload includes the Galaxy 30 broadband satellite, built for the global network operator Intelsat, the MEV-2 satellite servicing vehicle and the BSAT-4b satellite that will be used for 4K and 8K television broadcasting to Japan.