Flight VA259 – State-of-the-art | Galaxy 35 and 36 / MTG-I1 | Ariane 5 Launch | Arianespace

On Tuesday, December 13th, 2022 at 05:30 pm local time, an Ariane 5 launcher, operated by Arianespace, successfully lifted off from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana (South America), carrying the MTG-I1 meteorological satellite and the Galaxy 35 and Galaxy 36 telecommunication satellites. The Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) system will help meteorologists meet one of their main challenges – the rapid detection and forecasting of severe weather events – so that timely warnings can be given to citizens, civil authorities and first responders. The data from MTG-I1 (the “I” stands for “Imager”) will have a wide range of uses, from enabling aircraft to avoid storms and earlier alerts of flooding, to more precise monitoring of fires and fog. It will help to protect lives, property and infrastructure and bring economic benefits to Europe and Africa. The MTG satellites are developed and procured in cooperation with the European Space Agency by an industrial consortium led by Thales Alenia Space and O