‘Hotbirds’ fly clean with Beluga
A special aircraft landed at the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral in Florida last weekend, when the Airbus BelugaST (A300-600ST) delivered the Airbus-built Hotbird 13G satellite for Eutelsat. This happened a few hours after the successful launch of its twin, Hotbird 13F.
This was the first time since 2009 that the Beluga had visited the USA – when it transported the International Space Station European module ‘Tranquility’.
For this latest mission, the Beluga used 30% sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) for its flight from Toulouse (France).
With the advent of the new BelugaXL, based on the larger A330-200 platform, the BelugaST fleet is being made available for outsized freight transport services globally and has already performed missions for various customers since January. (ah)