Arianespace was contracted to launch Hot Bird 7 on the maiden flight of the Ariane 5ECA launch vehicle, an upgraded version of the Ariane 5 intended to offer increased payload capacity to Geostationary transfer orbit (GTO).
The STENTOR technology demonstration satellite, to have been operated by the French space agency CNES, was also aboard the launch vehicle.
[3] The launch took place from ELA-3 at Centre Spatial Guyanais, at Kourou, in French Guiana, at 22:22 UTC on 11 December 2002,[4] bound for geosynchronous transfer orbit.
Around three minutes after liftoff, performance issues with the first stage's Vulcain 2 engine, which was making its first flight, were noticed.
It began to lose altitude and speed, before being destroyed by range safety officer 456 seconds after launch.