PAS 6B
Ariane 42L
Arianespace
Mission
PAS 6B
- Type: Communications
- Orbit: Geostationary Orbit
In March 1998, Hughes Space and Communications Company of El Segundo, Calif., was selected by PanAmSat Corporation of Greenwich, Conn., to build PAS-6B, a Hughes HS-601HP spacecraft model to provide direct-to-home television transmissions in South America. The satellite was launched Dec. 21, 1998.
Location
Ariane Launch Area 2
Guiana Space Centre, French Guiana
Ariane Launch Area 2 has witnessed the launch of 119 rockets, including 119 orbital launch attempts. While Guiana Space Centre, French Guiana, has been the site for 323 rocket launches.
The Guiana Space Centre is a European spaceport to the northwest of Kourou in French Guiana, a region of France in South America. Kourou is located at a latitude of 5°. In operation since 1968, it is a suitable location for a spaceport because of its equatorial location and open sea to the east.
Rocket
Aérospatiale Ariane 42L
The Ariane 4 was an expendable space launch system, developed by the Centre national d'études spatiales (CNES), the French space agency, for the European Space Agency (ESA). It was manufactured by ArianeGroup and marketed by Arianespace. Since its first flight on 15 June 1988 until the final flight on 15 February 2003, it attained 113 successful launches out of 116 total launches.