INMARSAT GX5

Additional information INMARSAT GX5

Ariane 5 is a European heavy-lift launch vehicle that is part of the Ariane rocket family, an expendable launch system designed by the French government space agency Centre national d'études spatiales (CNES). It is used to deliver payloads into geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) or low Earth orbit (LEO).
German and French government agencies worked closely together to develop the Ariane. Ariane 5 rockets are manufactured under the authority of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the French space agency Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales. Airbus Defence and Space is the prime contractor for the vehicles, leading a multi-country consortium of other European contractors. Ariane 5 is operated and marketed by Arianespace as part of the Ariane programme. The rockets are launched by Arianespace from the Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana.
Ariane 5 succeeded Ariane 4, but was not derived from it directly as Ariane 5 was developed from scratch. Ariane 5 has been refined since the first launch in successive versions, "G", "G+", "GS", "ECA", and most recently, "ES". ESA originally designed Ariane 5 to launch the Hermes spaceplane, and thus intended it to be human rated from the beginning.
Ariane 5 has a commonly used dual-launch capability where up to two large geostationary belt communication satellites can be mounted using a SYLDA carrier (Syst?me de Lancement Double Ariane, "Ariane Double-Launch System"). Up to three, somewhat smaller, main satellites are possible depending on size using SPELTRA (Structure Porteuse Externe Lancement Triple Ariane, "Ariane Triple-Launch External Carrier Structure"). Up to eight secondary payloads, usually small experiment packages or minisatellites, can be carried with an ASAP (Ariane Structure for Auxiliary Payloads) platform.
As of January 2018 Arianespace had signed contracts for Ariane 5 ECA launches up through 2022, approximately two years following the planned introduction of Ariane 6 in 2020.

Average inclination INMARSAT GX5