Ariane-5 rocket launches 3 satellites

KOUROU, French Guiana (Reuters) -- Western Europe's new generation Ariane 5 rocket placed three satellites into orbit after a textbook launch late on Tuesday from equatorial French Guiana.

The rocket blasted off at 9:26 p.m. (0026 GMT Wednesday) from the European Space Agency (ESA) launch center in Kourou on the northeast coast of South America.

The rocket lit up a cloudy night sky and was visible from the ground for 90 seconds.

Officials of the Arianespace rocket launch company said the ASTRA 2D satellite separated from the rocket 28 minutes after liftoff.

ASTRA will provide direct digital television broadcasting to Britain for Luxembourg-based satellite operator Societe Europeene des Satellites (SES).

SES officials were not available to disclose the cost of the mission. Specialists estimated the cost of the satellite, launch and insurance at over $85 million.

ASTRA weighed 1.4 tonnes (3,000 lb) at launch and was built by Boeing Satellite Systems Inc (BSS) a unit of U.S. aerospace giant Boeing.

BSS is a recent creation by Boeing resulting from its acquisition of Hughes Space & Communications.

Five minutes later, the rocket released the GE-8 for U.S. telecommunications operator GE Americom, a unit of General Electric.

GE-8 weighed two tons (4,400 lb) at launch and will provide telecommunications services throughout the continental United States, Alaska and Hawaii.

This satellite was built in California by Lockheed Martin and is designed to operate for 15 years.

Specialists estimated the cost of the GE-8 satellite, launch and insurance at over $125 million.

At 64 minutes after liftoff, LDREX, an experimental antenna for future satellite technology, separated from the rocket. LDREX was built for Japan's national space agency (NASDA) and weighed 180 kg (400 lb) at launch.

Tuesday's launch was the 12th and final Ariane mission this year. It was the eighth mission of the new generation Ariane-5 rocket and its fifth commercial flight

Ariane-5 is designed to launch the heaviest commercial satellites currently built as well as transporting units of the international space station and scientific projects.

It is slated to replace the older generation Ariane-4 rocket series over the next three years. Ariane-4 has a reliability rate of over 97 percent, but can launch only payloads with a maximum weight of five metric tonnes.

Ariane-5's career started off with a spectacular failure during its maiden test launch in June 1996, exploding 37 seconds after lift-off and sending four uninsured scientific satellites worth $500 million plunging into mangrove swamps on French Guiana's coast.

Paris-based Arianespace that launches and markets Ariane rockets said it had orders for the launch of 36 heavy satellites. They said the launch orders were worth $3.3 billion.

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