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Arianespace Flight 154: 10th success in 9 months, and Ariane's 22nd 
launch for international telecommunications provider Intelsat
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Kourou, French Guiana, December 6, 2002 - Arianespace today orbited 
the Intelsat 906 communications satellite for international 
communications provider Intelsat. This accurate early morning mission 
came one week after the latest successful launch of an Ariane 5.

22nd launch for Intelsat, Arianespace's first customer

Intelsat 906 is the fifth satellite to be launched by Arianespace in 
the Intelsat IX series - the new generation of satellites deployed by 
this global communications provider. It also was the 22nd Intelsat 
satellite carried by Ariane.

The collaboration between Arianespace and Intelsat goes back to 1983. 
Sixty percent of the Intelsat satellites in operation today were 
orbited by the European launcher, making the company Arianespace's 
largest customer.

The first series IX satellite, Intelsat 901, was launched by 
Arianespace on June 9, 2001 (Flight 141), followed by Intelsat 902 on 
August 30, 2001 (Flight 143), Intelsat 904 on February 23, 2002 
(Flight 148) and by Intelsat 905 on June 5, 2002 (Flight 152).

One more Intelsat IX satellite is scheduled for an Arianespace launch 
in the beginning of 2003.

Flight 154 is Arianespace's 10th successful launch in 9 months. This 
steady pace reflects the regularity and quality of the Ariane system. 
Since the beginning of the year, Arianespace also has won nine out of 
the twelve launch contracts open to competition.


Upcoming launch:

Ariane 5
The launch preparation campaign for the next Ariane 5 mission began in
Kourou on August 22. A 10-ton payload lift version of the Ariane 5 is 
slated to carry 2 European satellites: HOTBIRDTM 7 for Eutelsat and 
STENTOR for the French space agency, CNES.

Flight 154 at a glance: 71st consecutive Ariane 4 success

Flight 154 was carried out by an Ariane 44L, the version of the 
launcher with four liquid-propellant strap-on boosters, from Europe's 
Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. Liftoff was on September 6, 2002 
at 6:44 a.m. GMT (3:44 a.m. local time in Kourou, 8:44 a.m. in Paris 
and 2:44 a.m. in Washington, DC).

Provisional parameters at third stage injection were:
Perigee: 199.7 km for a target of 200 km (+-3 km)
Apogee: 35,929 km for a target of 35,956 km (+-150 km)
Inclination: 6.99 degrees for a target of 7.00 degrees (+-0.06')

The Intelsat 906 satellite

Built by Space Systems/Loral in Palo Alto, California, the Intelsat 
906 will be positioned at 64 degrees East. It will join Intelsat's 
fleet of satellites providing Internet connections, telephony, 
television and enterprise network services for Europe, Africa and the 
Middle East, Asia and Australia. Weighing 4,723 kg at liftoff, 
Intelsat 906 is fitted with 72 C-band transponders and 22 Ku-band 
transponders (in 36 MHz unit equivalents). The payload was designed 
and built by Alcatel Space. Design life in orbit is more than 13 
years.

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