Image: Ariane 5's fourth launch this year

An Ariane 5, operated by Arianespace, has delivered two telecom satellites, Intelsat-33e and Intelsat-36, into their planned orbits.

Liftoff of flight VA232 occurred on 24 August at 22:16 GMT (19:16 local time, 00:16 CEST on 25 August) from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.

Intelsat-33e, with a mass at liftoff of 6600 kg and mounted in the upper position atop Ariane's Sylda dual-payload carrier inside the fairing, was the first to be released about 28 minutes into the mission.

Following a series of burns controlled by Ariane's onboard computer, the Sylda structure encasing the 3253 kg Intelsat-36 was then jettisoned. Intelsat-36 was released into its own transfer orbit about 13 minutes after the first satellite.

The payload mass for this launch was 10 735 kg. The satellites totalled about 9853 kg, with payload adapters and carrying structures making up the rest.

Both satellites have a design life of 15 years and are owned by satellite operator Intelsat.

Flight VA232 was the 87th Ariane 5 mission.