Arianespace Orders 35 Ariane 5s
Feb 5, 2009
Michael A. Taverna/Paris mike_taverna@aviationweek.com
A multibillion dollar order for 35 additional Ariane 5 boosters will position Arianespace to profit from anticipated sustained growth in satellite launch demand in the coming years.
The order, worth more than 4 billion euros, follows the purchase of ten additional Soyuz boosters last fall largely to serve the new launch pad in Kourou, French Guiana. The Kourou pad is due to start up at year's end.
The new batch, known as PB, will permit prime contractor EADS Astrium to continue production after depletion of the present batch of rockets, anticipated in the second half of 2010.
A total of 14 Ariane 5s in the present batch, PA, remain to be delivered, according to Arianespace Chairman/CEO Jean-Yves Le Gall. This includes 11 heavy-lift ECAs, two ESs, earmarked for the Automated Transfer Vehicle and perhaps the Galileo navigation satellite constellation, and one older GS.
The new batch will all be ECAs, Le Gall says. Additional ESs, if needed, will be ordered separately. Arianespace was selected last autumn to launch the remaining 26 Galileo spacecraft, but it is not yet known how many, if any, will be orbited by Ariane 5 and how many by the less expensive Soyuz.
Arianespace has profited handsomely from the current boom launcher market, and going into its next mission on Feb. 12 has a backlog of more than 20 Ariane 5s and 10 Soyuz boosters -- excluding Galileo -- more than half of the global market. Le Gall had anticipated ramping up to eight missions this year, but now expects to level off at seven, due to an anticipated modest dip in business due to the financial crisis.
Last week, it received an order to orbit two satellites for Arabsat (5C and 6B) and one for Hispasat (1E), and Le Gall expects to duplicate last year's showing of 13 launch orders.
At seven launches per year -- six Arianes were orbited in 2008 -- the PB batch should last through 2015, Le Gall says. This is when the planned Ariane 5 ME upgrade, equipped with a new cryogenic upper stage, is expected to be ready. Definition and demonstration of this model was approved last November, and a development greenlight is anticipated in 2011.
Work on the new batch has already begun under an authorization-to-proceed agreement signed in June 2007. The long delay in finalizing the contract is thought to be linked to difficult cost terms, a desire to protect against further depreciation of the dollar and completion of the Galileo selection.
Le Gall declines to discuss contract details, but acknowledges that cost and quality requirements were stiff. The book price for an Ariane 5 ECA, according to Arianespace, is 160 million euros for full capacity dual-launch.
Negotiations for a follow-on order of Vega light boosters, in discussion for some time, also are proving difficult, and Le Gall doesn't expect a final agreement in the near term. The inaugural launch of Vega is anticipated in late 2009/early 2010.
Photo: ESA
