The blast-off of Ariane 5 was foreseen during the night from May 30 until May 31, between 23:52 and 0:35 (hour of Brussels) from the Kourou base, in the French Guyana.

It is already a question of the second postponement programmed during May of Ariane 5, but his persons in charge have taken this decision after some errors detected the computer system. For the time being no new date has happened.

In January, 1994 a mistake in the throwing of the propellent Ariane 44LP endured the loss of the 1st Türksat, which would have been in that moment the first Turkish satellite in orbit. In the same operation there got lost also the satellite Eutelsat II-F5. That's why now Arianespace does not want that a similar situation recurs and has decided to delay from May 23 until May 30 the throwing with the target to realize move tests before the blast-off of the rocket.

The 3rd Türksat will be posicionado in the geostationary orbit of 42nd East and his principal mission will be that of replacing the old man Türksat 1C, with a better coverage in some areas of Europe.

There are already five the months of delay on the initial plans for the throwing of the new satellite Türksat 3rd with a capacity of 24 transpondedores in the band KU.

It is a question of a satellite of new generation provided not only with a major capacity of transpondedores but also of a top potency of being going to replace, the old man Türksat 1C, for what his coverage bundle will turn out to be significantly increased.

The orbital position of 42nd East is destined basically to the Turkish television market and does not stop being a hard competition for the digital payment platform, leader in Turkey as 7th East is Digitürk, given that this one expresses across another position, of the satellite Eutelsat W3A.



Trace of coverage of the satellite Türksat 3rd in the area West of Europe


(SatCesc, 31/05/08)