Arianespace Flight VS17 / SES-15

Arianespace’s workhorse Soyuz launch vehicle successfully delivered SES-15 – an all-electric telecommunications satellite for operation by European-based SES – to a sub-geostationary transfer orbit. The flight, designated VS17 in Arianespace’s launcher family numbering system, lasted 5 hrs., 18 min. from the precise liftoff at 08:54:53 a.m. (local time in French Guiana) to payload separation. It carried SES’ first satellite lofted by the medium-lift Soyuz launcher and the 40th overall for the operator laun