Arianespace Ariane 6 to launch Intelsat satellites

Arianespace signed a contract with longtime customer Intelsat to launch two satellite payloads, IS-41 and IS-44, using the heavy-lift Ariane 64 from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana in 2025. This agreement repurposes a previous launch contract and adds one additional satellite.

“We are honored, yet again, by our faithful longtime partner Intelsat with another significant contract,” said Stéphane Israël, CEO of Arianespace. “Intelsat is entrusting us with two highly sophisticated payloads for flight aboard our next generation heavy lift vehicle, the Ariane 64. What a tremendous vote of confidence in our team and our launcher! This special relationship goes back four decades and spans the entire Ariane line.”

“Launched with the Ariane 6, these innovative satellites will extend Intelsat’s 5G global reach and Media neighborhoods with high-speed, dynamically-allocated connectivity across Africa, Europe, the Middle East and Asia for commercial and government mobility customers, as well as cellular network backhaul,” said David C. Wajsgras, CEO of Intelsat. “Without world-class, international aerospace partners like Arianespace, Intelsat would not be the global leader it is today.”

Thales Alenia Space is manufacturing the IS-41 and IS-44 satellites, which are based on the innovative and flexible Space Inspire product line. The two software-defined satellites, fully reconfigurable in orbit, will collectively weigh close to 8000 kg at launch and will be placed into the requested geostationary transfer orbit.

Ariane 6 has been designed from the outset to be scalable and able to integrate, during its life and on a regular basis, new technologies. Ariane 6’s incremental development is intended to regularly improve the performance of the launch solutions offered by Arianespace and always better fulfil the needs of both institutional and commercial customers. These developments are funded and managed by the European Space Agency (ESA) and implemented by Ariane 6’s launcher system prime contractor ArianeGroup. BCS Bureau