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I'm surprised no one posted this yet.<br />From the Arianespace website<br /><br /><font color="yellow"> Ariane 5 ECA enters the record books with an outstanding performance <br /> <br />Arianespace's heavy-lift Ariane 5 ECA launcher logged another flawless mission today, delivering a record-setting payload of two telecommunications satellites to geostationary transfer orbit. <br /> <br /> Lifting off at the start of a 45-min. launch window at 6:09 p.m. local time, the vehicle climbed through mostly cloudy skies over Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana and completed its mission 32 minutes later. <br /><br />The combined weight of Ariane 5's Thaicom 5 and Satmex 6 spacecraft payloads was more than 8,200 kg., marking a new record for satellite mass delivered into orbit. <br /><br />With this success, Arianespace has launched a total of more than 230 satellites since the company pioneered the commercial launch services industry with its first Ariane mission in 1984. <br /><br /><br />A second dual-satellite flight for two long-time customers<br /><br />Arianespace CEO Jean-Yves Le Gall noted that the customers for today's mission – Mexico's Satelites Mexicanos, SA de CV., and the Shin Satellite Public Company Limited of Thailand – shared another dual satellite mission 12 years ago on an Ariane 4 launcher. <br /><br />"They already were fellow travelers in 1994 with Solidaridad 2 and Thaicom 2, when the combined weight of these two satellites was 3.8 metric tons," Le Gall said in a post-launch speech at the Spaceport's Jupiter control center. "Today's mission shows the exceptional performance that we now have with the heavy-lift Ariane 5 ECA." <br /><br />Le Gall said Arianespace will continue to be a record-setter, both commercially and technically. The company's commercial position is strong, with 39 satellites remaining in its backlog to be launched – of which seven were signed so far this y</font>