Ariane 5 lifts off Arabsat-5A, COMS satellites
13:37, June 27, 2010 
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French launcher Ariane 5 lifts off Arabsat-5A and South Korea's COMS satellites in French Guiana one minute after the launch window opened at 6:41 p.m. Saturday local time (GMT 0941). (Xinhua/AFP Photo)
French launcher Ariane 5 lifted off Arabsat-5A and South Korea's COMS satellites in French Guiana one minute after the launch window opened at 6:41 p.m. Saturday local time (GMT 0941).
After two stops of the last minute countdown, the Saturday launch marked the second Ariane 5 flight of 2010.
The heavy-lift Ariane 5 weighed approximately 8,390 kg as a whole, including a combined mass of 7,315 kg for the two satellites.
Arabsat-5A, the spacecraft on the upper position in the rocket, was built by Astrium and Thales Alenia Space on a Turkey contract for the Arabsat telecommunications operator, and is to operate at an orbital location of 30.5 degree East.
As the seventh Arabsat satellite lofted by the Ariane family, it is expected to offer telecommunications and TV broadcasting services over the Middle East and Africa.
South Korea's COMS (Communication, Ocean and Meteorological Satellite) is a multi-mission satellite with three payloads for meteorological observation, ocean surveillance and experimental broadband multimedia communications.
Astrium and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute are joint producer of the COMS multitasker, which was ejected at 32 minutes into the flight following the separation of Arabsat-5A.
The 2010 second flight was previously scheduled for Wednesday night, but due to subsystem anomaly, it was postponed to Thursday night. However, the second try was also frustrated by atypical problem to pressurization system.
The Paris-HQed Arianespace announced earlier Saturday that the launch was reset for the night after "precise analysis" and " complementary checks" of the observed anomaly were carried out.
The two satellites will head to geostationary orbit during their remaining trip. The company has targeted seven missions for the whole year.
Source: Xinhua
（Editor：王千原雪）
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