21.36 Europe/London, September 1, 2011 By Robert Briel
Arianespace will announce a new launch date for its upcoming dual-passenger mission following supplementary checks to be performed on the engine that powers Ariane 5s cryogenic upper stage.
These operations will take several days and are being carried out to ensure the highest level of quality for the heavy-lift Ariane 5 ECA, which is to orbit the Arabsat-5C and SES-2 telecommunications satellites.
The upcoming flight will be Arianespaces fifth Ariane 5 launch of 2011.
In a related development, the operator of the Amos communications satellites has announced that it had been notified by Israel Aerospace Industries, the manufacturer of the Amos 5 satellite, that a flaw in it had been repaired and that the satellite can be launched on schedule in December 2011.
In early July, Spacecom said that a fault in one of the units of the Amos 5 satellite would cause a delay in the timetable for the satellites launch.
