During activity inside the Spaceport’s Launcher Integration Building, the core cryogenic stage was removed from
its protective shipping container and raised into position over one of two operational mobile launch tables available
for Ariane 5.
The pair of solid propellant boosters was then anchored to the launch table on each side of the core stage this
weekend, readying them for mating to complete the vehicle’s initial assembly step.
This Ariane 5 will be used on a flight scheduled for June 19 with Europe’s Meteosat Second Generation-3 (MSG-3) weather
satellite for the European Space Agency and EUMETSAT (the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites); along with the EchoStar XVII high-throughput telecommunications platform for Hughes Network Systems
April 27, 2012 - Ariane Flight VA207
Integration of the "upper composite" - composed of its ESC-A cryogenic upper stage and the vehicle equipment bay
that functions as the launcher’s "“brains".
The activity was performed this week in the Spaceport’s Launcher Integration Building at French Guiana, where the
upper composite was installed as a single unit atop Ariane 5’s core cryogenic stage.
Power for the ESC-A is provided by an HM-7B engine, whose reliability has been proven during years of service on
Ariane 5 and with the predecessor Ariane 4 launcher series. Located above the upper stage is Ariane 5’s vehicle equipment
bay, containing the launcher’s onboard computers, inertial guidance units, sequencing electronics, power supplies and
telemetry equipment.
