At 2143 GMT on 16 October 2014, an Ariane 5 ECA rocket powered away from its launch site in Kourou, French Guiana, to inject two satellites into a transfer orbit on their way to a Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) location.
The satellites carried were 6319kg Intelsat 30 (aka ISDLA 1) – a large communications satellite launched on behalf of Intelsat, and 2982kg ARSAT -1, which is smaller communications satellite with 24 Ku-band transponders designed to provide services for Argentina’s Arsat company. ARSAT-1 will operate from an orbital position of 71.8 degrees West. ARSAT-1 was built in Argentina by INVAP using its own bus design. The US manufacturer, Space Systems/Loral built the Intelsat 30 satellite using a version of its LS-1300 bus design. Intelsat 30 has a communications payload of 72 Ku-band and 10 C-band transponders providing services to Latin America. Intelsat 30 will be co-located with Intelsat’s Galaxy 3C satellite at 95 degrees West.
Both Intelsat 30 and ARSAT-1 are designed for a life of 15 years.
