Author Topic: Ariane 5 VA261 - Syracuse 4B & Heinrich Hertz - 5 July 2023 (22:00 UTC)  (Read 49894 times)

Offline Galactic Penguin SST

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Offline TheKutKu

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Moved up to June 16 per DLR.

This is the first time I'm not happy that a launch date is moved up, itself a rare occasion.


Offline CLE

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Probably to avoid launching during the Paris Air Show (19 - 25 June)

Offline bolun

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Ariane 5 solid fuel booster, flight VA261

A solid-fuel booster is transferred to the Ariane 5 assembly building at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana in preparation for flight in June 2023. VA261 will be the 117th and final launch for Ariane 5. Payloads are Syracuse 4B and Heinrich Hertz.

https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2023/05/Ariane_5_solid_fuel_booster_flight_VA2612

https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2023/05/Ariane_5_solid_fuel_booster_flight_VA261

Credits: ESA/CNES/Arianespace/Optique video du CSG/P Piron
« Last Edit: 05/07/2023 01:06 pm by bolun »

Offline bolun

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Ariane 5 lower stage, flight VA261

In the Ariane 5 assembly building at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, this lower, liquid-fuel stage is being prepared for flight in June 2023. VA261 will be the 117th and final launch for Ariane 5. Payloads are Syracuse 4B and Heinrich Hertz.

https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2023/05/Ariane_5_lower_stage_flight_VA2612

https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2023/05/Ariane_5_lower_stage_flight_VA2613

https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2023/05/Ariane_5_lower_stage_flight_VA261

Credits: ESA/CNES/Arianespace/Optique video du CSG/S Martin

Offline GWR64

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Finally Heinrich Hertz "H2Sat" is in Kourou, after years of delays.

Quote
DutchSpace
@DutchSpace
Nice to see the Antonov An-124 back at Cayenne for the transport of H2Sat (Heinrich Hertz) to CSG as one of the passengers of the last ever Ariane 5 launch.

https://twitter.com/DutchSpace/status/1654831226757459970

Online FutureSpaceTourist

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twitter.com/arianegroup/status/1657111137379405848

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🧩 The final pieces of the upper stage puzzle are slotted into place. You might think there should be cries of joy and expressions of intense emotion, but what we see on the faces of the technicians working on our launchers is simply pure concentration, whatever the mission. ©⬇️

https://twitter.com/arianegroup/status/1657111141112508416

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#OneLastAriane5 #Ariane5 #ArianeGroup #VA261  ©ESA-CNES-Arianespace / Service optique du CSG - S Martin

twitter.com/arianegroup/status/1657111144195149829

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#OneLastAriane5 #Ariane5 #ArianeGroup #VA261  ©ESA-CNES-Arianespace / Service optique du CSG - S Martin

https://twitter.com/arianegroup/status/1657111146938224650

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🥹 #OneLastAriane5 #Ariane5 #ArianeGroup #VA261  ©ESA-CNES-Arianespace / Service optique du CSG - S Martin

Online FutureSpaceTourist

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https://twitter.com/arianegroup/status/1657843975577915394

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🚀 New pictures from the last #Ariane5 campaign. Each launch always feels like the first one, even if all the teams know the choreography by heart, but this one carries the memories of all the other Ariane 5 launches.
#OneLastAriane5 #ArianeGroup #Arianespace #VA261

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@esa @CNES @arianespace @EuropeSpacePort  #Ariane5 #ArianeGroup #Arianespace #VA261  ©ESA-CNES-Arianespace / Service optique du CSG - S Martin

https://twitter.com/arianegroup/status/1657843981139726337

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@esa @CNES @Arianespace @EuropeSpacePort  #Ariane5 #ArianeGroup #Arianespace #VA261  ©ESA-CNES-Arianespace / Service optique du CSG - S Martin

Online FutureSpaceTourist

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https://twitter.com/arianespace/status/1658117267148644353

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🗓️ The target date for our next mission, #Ariane5 Flight #VA261, is June 16!
It will orbit two different passengers:
🛰️ Syracuse 4B, built by @AirbusSpace for @DGA.
🛰️ Heinrich-Hertz-Mission, built by @OHB_SE for @DLR_SpaceAgency.

#DestinationSpace

Offline GWR64

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Online FutureSpaceTourist

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twitter.com/arianegroup/status/1660725772120621057

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🛰Named after a famous German engineer who discovered radio waves, the Heinrich Hertz satellite (or H2Sat for insiders), currently seen here at @EuropeSpacePort in French Guiana, is on its way to becoming the last passenger on an #Ariane5 launcher. @DLR_SpaceAgency
 #VA261

https://twitter.com/arianegroup/status/1660725774163255328

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One of its missions will be to test new satellite communications technologies to see if they are suitable for use in space.
Guten Flug H2Sat! ©ESA-CNES-Arianespace / Optique vidéo du CSG - S Martin @Arianespace @DLR_SpaceAgency
#OneLastAriane5 #VA261 #ArianeGroup #Ariane5
« Last Edit: 05/22/2023 07:18 pm by FutureSpaceTourist »

Offline jacqmans

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DLR Press Release, 23 May 2023

Heinrich Hertz mission ready for launch - German satellite will make satellite communications smarter and more flexible

As global communications bandwidth needs rapidly increase, so do the demands on communications satellites. Communications satellites capable of handling modern and future demands must therefore make use of much more high-performance technologies than previous generations. With the ‘Heinrich Hertz’ mission, the German Space Agency at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum fuer Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) will launch its own national communications satellite on 16 June 2023. After an absence of more than 18 years, the satellite will comprehensively demonstrate German system capabilities in this field. The technologies on board are designed to respond in a smart and flexible manner to future challenges in the field of satellite communications and to be able to support future communications scenarios. The 3450-kilogram, van-sized satellite will begin its journey into space as one of two payloads on the last-ever European Ariane 5 launch vehicle (type ECA) from the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. This will be the 117th launch of the Ariane 5.

The satellite will enable experiments on communications, and antenna and satellite technologies developed and built by German research institutes and companies, that will validate these technologies for use in space or test them under real operating conditions for the first time. With the fuelling of the satellite at the Centre Spatial Guyanais (CSG) on 19 to 24 May 2023, the mission is now a significant step closer to launch. Following its launch, the satellite will orbit Earth at an altitude of approximately 36,000 kilometres in a geostationary orbit – it will always be above the same point on Earth’s surface – for 15 years.

“The Hamburg physicist Heinrich Hertz was a pioneer in communications and media technology. Without him, mobile phones, television and the internet would be unthinkable today. The Heinrich Hertz mission is also doing pioneering work. We are sending an intelligent satellite into space that can process information independently on board. Its systems can then be flexibly adapted to new technical requirements and market conditions by teams on Earth. In a figurative sense, this smart satellite will grow with its tasks while in orbit,” emphasises Walther Pelzer, DLR Executive Board Member and Director General of the German Space Agency at DLR. The strength of the communication signal and the communication bandwidth can be adjusted in orbit. Its digitally scalable communication bandwidths cover broadband to narrowband applications and enable Heinrich Hertz to be flexibly adapted to new communication standards.

Communication reimagined

Receiving and forwarding data – that is a limitation of the normal mode of operation of a communications satellite. But would it not be much more practical if the incoming information could already be filtered and processed on board the satellite? This is role of the additional miniaturised computer systems installed on Heinrich Hertz. These on-board processors are a new type of computer that can interpret the signals received by the satellite, regenerate them and send them back to Earth. These processors are powerful and enable digital signal processing on board satellites. They are also flexibly reprogrammable. “Heinrich Hertz’s long, 15-year mission will see the satellite’s capabilities be continuously adapted to ever-changing technical requirements. These processors make the mission a very flexible tool that researchers will also use to investigate questions of the future in orbit,” explains Heiko Ultes, Project Manager of the Heinrich Hertz mission at the German Space Agency at DLR.

Sustainably powered by electricity

For a satellite to reach its intended orbit, its launch vehicle must first overcome gravity and it must accelerate to the desired orbital velocity. Chemical thrusters offer high thrust and provide the necessary acceleration to reach orbit. They carry the launcher and satellite into approximately the desired orbit. Once there, the orbit and orientation of the satellite in the vacuum of space can be controlled much more effectively and, above all, more precisely with electric thrusters rather than with chemical ones. Electric propulsion systems can reduce weight, and thus save costs, and increase the overall propellant content and thus the satellite’s operating time or payload capacity. This is because the ionisation of the gaseous propellant can generate a significantly higher specific impulse than chemical propulsion systems. The electrically powered High Efficiency Multi Stage Plasma HEMP thruster, which powers the course corrections within the target orbit of the Heinrich Hertz mission, has a specific impulse five times higher than the best chemical thrusters.

The Heinrich Hertz Mission and its partners

The Heinrich Hertz mission marks the first launch of a dedicated German communications satellite for researching and testing new technologies and communications scenarios. The mission will thus make an important contribution to Germany’s information society. The Heinrich Hertz mission is being led by the German Space Agency at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) in Bonn on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Klimaschutz; BMWK) and with the participation of the Federal Ministry of Defence (Bundesministerium der Verteidigung; BMVg). OHB-System AG was contracted to develop and build the satellite. The companies IABG GmbH, MDA AG and TESAT GmbH & Co. KG are also involved in the development and testing of the satellite. OHB Digital Connect is responsible for the ground segment in collaboration with CGI. The satellite control centre is located in Bonn. The locations for the mission’s new ground stations are in Hürth (North Rhine-Westphalia) and Neustrelitz (Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania). Arianespace is responsible for launching the mission on board an Ariane 5 launch vehicle (VA261). A further 36 partners are involved in the mission, of which 14 are involved in the scientific payload.


https://www.dlr.de/en/latest/news/2023/02/heinrich-hertz-mission-ready-for-launch
Jacques :-)

Offline jacqmans

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Jacques :-)

Offline Remes

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Observation site Carapa will open at 4:26pm. So the launch will be after that point in time.
« Last Edit: 05/28/2023 05:08 pm by Remes »

Offline GWR64

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https://centrespatialguyanais.cnes.fr/fr/va261-ariane-5-se-prepare-pour-son-ultime-missiom
Quote
Le 117e et dernier vol Ariane 5 est prévu pour le vendredi 16 juin, entre 18h16 et 20H01 (heure de Guyane), 23h16 et 00h01 heure de Paris. Sous la coiffe, les satellites militaires de télécommunications Heinrich-Hertz et Syracuse-4B.

Google translation:
The 117th and last Ariane 5 flight is scheduled for Friday June 16, between 6:16 p.m. and 8:01 p.m. (French Guiana time), 11:16 p.m. and 12:01 a.m. Paris time. Under the fairing, the military telecommunications satellites Heinrich-Hertz and Syracuse-4B.

so launchwindow is: 21:16 to 23:01 UTC
Assuming the local times are correct. The conversion to Paris time (CEST) is incorrect for the end time.

edit: link fixed
« Last Edit: 06/01/2023 06:51 pm by GWR64 »

Online FutureSpaceTourist

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https://twitter.com/arianegroup/status/1665664407442006018

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The legend is about to make its last voyage towards the stars, leaving an indelible mark on Europe's space adventure.  With this last Ariane 5 patch, we pay tribute to its shining success story.
#OneLastAriane5 #Ariane5 #ArianeGroup #Arianespace #VA261 @arianespace

Online FutureSpaceTourist

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https://twitter.com/esa_transport/status/1665732065592070144

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Hello Heinrich Hertz👋! Getting ready for #Ariane5 🚀#VA261 @EuropeSpacePort

Offline Remes

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Offline Remes

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Reservation for launch viewing sites is open.

https://cnes-csg.reservationlancement.fr/en/Inscription/Lancements
and closed

Only observation site Ibis was offered.
« Last Edit: 06/05/2023 05:29 pm by Remes »

Offline GWR64

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https://centrespatialguyanais.cnes.fr/fr/va261-ariane-5-se-prepare-pour-son-ultime-missiom


edit: link fixed

Quote
Le 117e et dernier vol Ariane 5 est prévu pour le vendredi 16 juin, entre 18h26 et 20H01 (heure de Guyane), 23h26 et 00h01 heure de Paris. Sous la coiffe, les satellites militaires de télécommunications Heinrich-Hertz et Syracuse-4B.

Hmm, wasn't paying attention.
I replaced the old link with the current one, but didn't see that the start time of the launch window has changed by 10 minutes..
The strange leap in time in the conversion at the end remains, however. (+5h -> +4h)
« Last Edit: 06/05/2023 08:59 pm by GWR64 »

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