Half a dozen years after its first flight attempt, the Ariane 5 is ready to take to the air in an enhanced configuration designed to considerably augment performance and decrease costs. The upgraded version, set for launch during the night of Nov. 28-29, will carry aloft France's Stentor experimental telecom satellite and Eutelsats Hot Bird 7. The upgrade, designated Ariane 5 EC-A, will be capable of placing a 10-10.5-metric-ton payload into geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) in dual-launch configuration, compared with 6.7 tons for current Ariane 5s and 5.9 tons for the first commercial mission three years ago.
展开▼
机译：在首次尝试飞行后的六十年中，阿丽亚娜5飞机已经准备好以增强型配置投放市场，该配置旨在显着提高性能并降低成本。升级版定于11月28日至29日夜间发射，将搭载法国的Stentor实验性电信卫星和Eutelsats Hot Bird7。升级版被称为Ariane 5 EC-A，将能够放置10-10.5公吨的有效载荷以双发射配置进入对地静止转移轨道（GTO），相比之下，当前的阿丽亚娜5s导弹为6.7吨，三年前的首次商业飞行任务为5.9吨。
展开▼
