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Paris, 18 Dec 2002

Just after midnight an Ariane 4 soared into the sky above Kourou in French Guiana to place a new telecommunications satellite into orbit. This is the 113th successful Ariane 4 launch, an outstanding record for this, the workhorse of the Ariane family.

On board the Ariane 44L launch vehicle, equipped with four powerful strap-on boosters, was an NSS-6 satellite belonging to New Skies Satellits N.V. Now that this telecommunications satellite has been successfully placed into geostationary orbit it will cover all of Asia, Australia, India, the Middle East and South Africa.

European Space Agency
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