Ariane Rocket to Take Off Today With Satellites by Ford Aerospace

Ford Aerospace Corp.’s newest commercial satellite, the Superbird, is scheduled to be placed into orbit for the first time today when two of them, configured as communications satellites, will be carried aloft aboard a European Ariane 4A rocket launched from French Guiana.

Susan Pearce, spokeswoman for Newport Beach-based Ford Aerospace, said the satellites will be used by their Japanese owner for video distribution, satellite news gathering, private business networks and, in the future, possibly for high-definition television.

The satellites were built at a Ford Aerospace plant in Palo Alto for Space Communications Corp., a private Japanese satellite firm, at a cost of about $200 million, Pearce said.

The two satellites will be placed in a stationary orbit 22,300 miles above the Earth.