First Ariane 5 Launch in 2013 Sets New Record to Geostationary Orbit

The 68th launch of an Ariane 5 heavy-lift rocket on February 7 set a new record for weight injected into geostationary orbit: the launcher on this mission carried a total payload of 10,317 kg, including 9,503 kg for the two satellites, Amazonas-3 and Azerspace/Africasat-1a. The remaining weight was for Astrium's SYLDA dual launch system and for the integration hardware.

The Ariane 5 ECA launcher, launched from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana is capable of placing a dual payload into orbit, which keeps costs down. The launcher, developed and built by Astrium, one of the world's leading space technology companies, has become the most reliable commercial launcher on the global market. In the 10 years of its operation the geostationary orbit payload capacity could be increased by nearly one metric ton, or more than 10%. A modernised version of the launcher that is currently being developed and built by Astrium, the Ariane 5 ME, will boost launch capacity by another 20% for the same price.

The race to space is on in this decade, with major new players on the market. This includes Asian nations with their national space programs, especially China with its stellar plans to build their own space station and even land Taikonauts on the moon. But as a direct contender for Arianespace, the worlds largest commercial space launch company today, SpaceX boasts about their plan to launch the world's most powerful and at the same time cheapest heavy-lift launcher, the Falcon Heavy - although the lift capacity to GTO is much lower than the massive 52 tons to LEO (low earth orbit). The first launch will happen this year, and when successful, this will pit the Falcon Heavy directly against the Ariane 5, with the two launchers offering the same capacity of 12 tons to GTO.