Ariane-5ECA

The Ariane 5 rocket with EchoStar 18 and BRIsat rolled to its launch pad in French Guiana on Thursday. ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Photo Optique Video du CSG – P. Baudon

Ariane 5 rocket took off at 2138 GMT (5:38 p.m. EDT; 6:38 p.m. French Guiana time)

Description:

• The Ariane 5 rocket, launched on June 16, 2016 setting the record for the European launcher’s heaviest commercial payload.
  The two spacecraft fastened inside the Ariane 5´s nose cone — EchoStar 18 and BRIsat — had a combined weight at liftoff of 21,693 pounds (9,840 kilograms) stacked on a Sylda dual-payload adapter.
  When figuring in the mass of the Sylda adapter structure, the mass allocated to the Ariane 5´s payload Saturday summed 23,657 pounds (10,731 kilograms).
  It is the heaviest combined commercial payload ever launched on an Ariane 5 rocket, eclipsing a previous mark set in 2013, and it is the most massive satellite package ever put into geostationary transfer orbit, a drop-off point for most large communications satellites.