Ariane 5 Rocket Delivers Satellites, NASA GOLD to Orbit Despite Launch Anomaly

Two commercial satellites and a NASA Earth-observation instrument managed to reach orbit despite a scare during liftoff today (Jan. 25). NASA's Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD) instrument and the SES-14 and Al Yah 3 communications satellites launched atop an Arianespace Ariane 5 rocket this evening from Guiana Space Center in French Guiana. GOLD, which is a bit bigger than a microwave, rode piggyback on SES-14. About 9 minutes after liftoff, the outlook turned grim: Arianespace lost contact with the rocket's upper stage, leading to speculation that the payloads had been lost. More

(Source: Space.com - Jan 26)