Antonov Airlines and Bolloré Logistics have transported a satellite on an AN-124-100-150 plane from Toulouse, France, to the NASA Shuttle Landing Facility in Florida, United States.
The Airbus Defence and Space civil communications satellite weighed 50 tonnes in total, including a special container created by Airbus Defence and Space specifically for transporting these kinds of satellites to the designated space centre.
The satellite was scheduled to be launched by the US aerospace company SpaceX.
"As permanent users of this type of aircraft, we are pleased to welcome the 'Ruslan' on the market to perform sensitive transports like the movement of the satellites to the different launch pads," said Yorann Marc, projects department manager, Bolloré Logistics.
"The communication channel stayed always active in the last months, and we were impressed by Antonov Airline's agility to maintain continuity of service after painful events occurred at their home base in Hostomel," Marc added, referring to the destruction of Antonov's home base at Kyiv-Antonov airport in Hostomel due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.
In April, Antonov's fleet of AN-124 aircraft has been relocated to Leipzig/Halle Airport in Germany.
Antonov, a Ukrainian state-owned firm, operates a fleet of cargo aircraft including five AN-124-100 'Ruslan' aircraft, each with a payload of up to 150 tonnes.
"We would like to thank Airbus Defence And Space for their renewed confidence in the competence of Bollore Logistics for moving their critical equipment in accordance with the highest standard of security," the Bolloré Logistics executive added.
Meanwhile, Sergii Bilozerov, commercial executive, of Antonov Airlines cited the expertise of its technical crew and engineers which he said has guaranteed the smooth and efficient transport of this delicate and unique cargo.
"An external crane in conjunction with the onboard crane and winch of the AN-124-100-150 was used to load and unload the container CTH04, as well as special loading equipment designed and manufactured by Antonov’s in-house engineers," Bilozerov said.
