Kourou, August 22: An Ariane-5 rocket put into orbit satellites for Japan and Australia after being launched from French Guiana on Friday, space officials said.
The rocket blasted off from the European Space Agency’s (ESA) launch center in Kourou, French Guiana on the northeast coast of South America.
One of the satellites, a JCSAT-12, will provide telecommunications services covering Japan, the Asia-Pacific region and Hawaii for Japan’s Sky Perfect JSAT Corp. It was built by Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems.
The other satellite, an OPTUS D3, will provide television, Internet, telephony and data transmission services for Australia and New Zealand. It was built in Virginia by Orbital Sciences Corp.
“Australia is a vast continent where the delivery by satellites makes sense,” Paul Sheridan, chief executive of Australia’s Optus company, told reporters after the launch.
“D3 reflects our continuing commitment and investment to delivering those services by satellite,” he said.
–IANS