Friday Special: Two Rocket Launches in Less Than Two Hours

It was a busy launch day around the world on Friday. Above, the Ariane 5 rocket carrying the ST-2 and GSAT-8 communications satellites launched from Kourou, French Guiana, and below, about an hour and a half earlier, a Proton rocket blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan bringing a Telstar 14R satellite to orbit. The Telstar satellite will provide communications services over the United States, Brazil and other parts of South America for Telesat of Canada, and the ST 2 will provide fixed and mobile voice and Internet to Asia and the Middle East.

Thanks to Chris Calubquib on Twitter for the updates and posting the launch videos on You Tube.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy has been with Universe Today since 2004, and has published over 6,000 articles on space exploration, astronomy, science and technology. She is the author of two books: "Eight Years to the Moon: the History of the Apollo Missions," (2019) which shares the stories of 60 engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make landing on the Moon possible; and "Incredible Stories from Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos" (2016) tells the stories of those who work on NASA's robotic missions to explore the Solar System and beyond. Follow Nancy on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Nancy_A and and Instagram at and https://www.instagram.com/nancyatkinson_ut/

Recent Posts

The Last Arecibo Message Celebrates the Observatory and One of its Greatest Accomplishments

The Arecibo Message, transmitted on November 16th, 1974, from the Arecibo Observatory, was humanity's first…

9 hours ago

A Nearby Supernova Could Finally Reveal Mark Matter

Despite 90 years of research, the nature and influence of Dark Matter continue to elude…

10 hours ago

Astronomers Find a 3 Million Year Old Planet

Astronomers have just found one of the youngest planets ever. At only 3 million years…

1 day ago

There was Hot Water on Mars 4.45 Billion Years Ago

Mars formed 4.5 billion years ago, roughly the same time as the Earth. We know…

2 days ago

Axion Dark Matter May Make Spacetime Ring

Dark matter made out of axions may have the power to make space-time ring like…

2 days ago

Earth’s Old Trees Keep A Record of Powerful Solar Storms

Most of the time the Sun is pretty well-mannered, but occasionally it's downright unruly. It…

2 days ago