Posted on 12/19/2004 7:11:08 PM PST by wagglebee
PARIS — A European rocket roared into space from a pad in South America on Saturday, placing into orbit a surveillance satellite billed as giving France's military new abilities to spy worldwide.
The unmanned craft lifted off smoothly from a launch center in Kourou, French Guiana, at 1:36 p.m. — the third and last launch of an Ariane-5 rocket this year, Arianespace said.
The satellite and six smaller scientific ones were placed into orbit about an hour after liftoff. It was the first time in 11 years that an Ariane rocket carried as many as seven satellites on a single launch.
The Helios 2A military satellite, the rocket's main cargo, is to rotate in sun-synchronous orbit around 435 miles above the Earth, Arianespace said.
"The success of the Helios 2A launch is a great step forward for our space policy," Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said at Ecole Militaire. "Mastering space is an imperative for tomorrow," she said, calling for greater space cooperation in Europe.
The French military will "benefit from additional capabilities, more precise images and faster reaction speed," she said at a screening room at the Paris academy.
Cruise Missile Guidance
Among expected functions, the satellite is to monitor possible weapons proliferation, prepare and evaluate military operations and digitally map terrain for cruise missile guidance, the French Defense Ministry said in a statement Friday.
Helios 2A, weighing 4.6 tons, is said to be able to spot objects as small as a textbook anywhere on Earth. Equipped with infrared sensors, it is expected to allow France's military to gather information at night from space for the first time.
Among its predecessors, Helios 1B, which was launched in 1999, suffered a power problem and the military let it disintegrate in the upper layers of the atmosphere two months ago. The first satellite in the series, Helios 1A, went up in 1995 and is still operating.
Also in the payload Saturday was the Parasol satellite, which is to help study the effect of cloud cover and aerosols on global warming and the greenhouse effect, believed to occur when carbon dioxide emissions trap the sun's heat in the atmosphere.
Parasol is part of a French-American space observation mission involving six satellites that can study the world's atmosphere and help give a complete idea of how human activity affects the environment.
The launch marks the 165th Ariane mission since the European launcher first began operating in 1979. Arianespace is the commercial arm of the 13-country European Space Agency.
I guess they want as much time as possible to prepare the white flags.
How about intel gathering about CONUS sold to the highest bidder? Time to ramp up the ASAT program.
ping
ping
Ground based pull lasers burn out the CCDs a lot cheaper. All you got to do is know when its opening its irus.
So what does France want to know --- a better puff pastry recipe or how to make a more visible white flag?
"I guess they want as much time as possible to prepare the white flags."
My thought exactly.
:)
I guess they want as much time as possible to prepare the white flags.
Yep they can track the islamists invading their country and use that time to prepare to surrender. Heck I am sure the satellite itself has w white flag on it so that it can surrender to US spy satellites!.
They probably want to know how California wineries beat French champagne in a blind taste test.
Not that I care-
I'm a teetotaler anyway.
:D :D Love that! Even eating the cheese like the cheese-eating surrender monkey it is :D
Helios 2A, weighing 4.6 tonsDang!
We hams could use that as a passive microwave 'repeater' - I wonder if the French would object if I pointed my high-gain EME (Earth-Moon-Earth) array it's direction and called CQ in CW ...
Thanks, France!
Answering my own question:
Well now, we don't really know the answer to that question, because FReepers (for the most part) do not think like the french. (Yes it's a small "f" because the french are well --- very french.)
On a more sobering note, hi tech intel shared with the 'wrong' folks could spell high battle field losses for US combat troops. I am no friend of the French, nor they, us.
It is friends of the French State that should give us pause.
And, if I were active duty in the IDF, I would want to know when this bird was overhead...
You should give it a try, see how well it is designed. Maybe it will throw its hands up and tumble down. Let us know the time and frequency, so we can listen on it. 73
That's right, they need to know who they are going to surrender to so they can have the railroad car ready.
Did it need a tow ?
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