The six auxiliary satellites to be orbited by Flight 165 have been mounted on a dispenser ring that will be installed with the Ariane 5's primary payload.

These small satellites have varying missions, including communications with remote scientific ground stations, studies of the Earth's climate, and the validation of technologies for a future space-based military electronic intelligence (ELINT) system.

The integration operation began last week with the installation of Spain's Nanosat on the Ariane 5 dispenser ring. Nanosat is Spain's first small satellite, and it was built by the country's INTA national space agency (Instituto Nacional de T?©cnia Aeroespacial). With a weight of less than 20 kg., the spacecraft is designed to demonstrate the feasibility of applying scaled-down components and sensors in mini satellites.

Nanosat carries extremely small magnetic and solar sensors, along with a store-and-forward communications system that will relay information from remote scientific facilities in Antarctica and elsewhere to a central station in Madrid.

The next satellite integrated on the Ariane 5 dispenser ring was Parasol, a small spacecraft from the French CNES National Space Agency that will study the impact of aerosols and how they interact with clouds. This information is to help scientists better understand the Earth's climate.

Parasol is equipped with a wide-field imaging radiometer/polarimeter called POLDER (Polarization and Directionality of the Earth's Reflectances), designed in partnership with the LOA atmospheric optics laboratory in Lille, France.

During its planned two-year mission, Parasol is to join a so-called "A-Train" of spacecraft with a full complement of instruments to observe clouds and aerosols. Other satellites forming the "A-Train" will be Aqua and Aura (from the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration), Calipso (a NASA/CNES project), CloudSat (a U.S./Canadian partnership involving Colorado State University, NASA, the Canadian Space Agency, the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Department of Energy), and the Orbiting Carbon Observatory (NASA).

The final four satellites to be integrated on Flight 165's Ariane 5 dispenser ring were the small Essaim spacecraft developed by the French defense procurement agency (DGA) to validate technologies for a future space-based electronic intelligence (ELINT) system. The Essaim spacecraft are generally similar in overall size and appearance to the 120-kg. Parasol satellite, and these four payloads were installed on the dispenser ring in a series of steps completed early this week.

Liftoff of Flight 165 is planned for December 10 on a mission to Sun-synchronous orbit. Its primary payload is Helios IIA, which is a second-generation space-based military reconnaissance platform produced in a French-led program that also involves Belgium and Spain.