An Ariane 5 has delivered the T-16 and Eutelsat-7C telecom satellites into their planned orbits.

Arianespace announced liftoff at 21:43 GMT (23:43 CEST, 18:43 local time) yesterday from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. The mission lasted about 33 minutes.

T-16 with a launch mass of 6330 kg, was the first to be released after about 27 minutes. The 3400 kg Eutelsat-7C was released 6 minutes later.

T-16 owned by for AT&T (DirecTV) provides high-power broadcast services covering the continental United States, Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico. T-16 has a design life of 15 years.

Eutelsat-7C, owned and operated by Eutelsat, provides high-power broadcasting for markets in Africa, Europe, the Middle East and Turkey. This satellite has a design life of more than 15 years.

The performance requested for this launch was about 10 594 kg. The satellites totalled about 9730 kg, with payload adapters and carrying structures making up the rest.

Flight VA248 was the 104th Ariane 5 mission.