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 Europes Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana (South America), carrying the MTGI1 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 MTGI1 (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