Jungle Launch Thursday

Watch it live, from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. Launch window:

GMT: From 9:54 p.m. to 10:43 p.m. on June 12, 2008
Local time in Kourou: From 6:54 p.m. to 7:43 p.m. on June 12, 2008
New York: From 5:54 p.m. to 6:43 p.m. on June 12, 2008
Paris: From 11:54 p.m. to 00:43 a.m. on June 12/13, 2008

The update, via Arianespace:

Arianespace’s third mission of 2008 is ready for liftoff tomorrow evening following the roll-out of Ariane 5 to the Spaceport’s ELA-3 launch zone this morning.

Emerging from the Final Assembly Building at 11:00 a.m., the heavy-lift Ariane 5 ECA’s transfer was completed in 1 hr. 15 min.  It rode atop one of two mobile launch tables developed for the workhorse vehicle, and moved along a 2.8-km. section of the dual-rail track that links the Spaceport’s major launch infrastructure elements.

This flight will be another of Ariane 5’s trademark dual-satellite missions, carrying the Skynet 5C and Turksat 3A spacecraft.  Its upper passenger is Skynet 5C, which was installed atop the SYLDA 5 dispenser system, and then encapsulated in Ariane 5’s ogive-shaped payload fairing. 

The mission’s payload “stack” places Turksat 3A in the lower passenger position, with this satellite being released in the final phase of Ariane 5’s 32-minute fight.