Ariane 5ECA vehicle L538, on flight V179, placed two communications
satellites in geostationary transfer orbit on Nov 14. The EPC stage
reached a -1065 x 168 km suborbital trajectory, with the ESC-A upper
stage continuing to GTO in a single burn.
The upper satellite is Skynet
5B, an Astrium Eurostar E3000 satellite owned by EADS' Paradigm company,
which provides communications services at SHF and UHF to the UK Ministry
of Defence. The satellites spent an extended period in transfer orbit.