Arianespace has announced that it will record total revenue of E1.046bn for 2009, a 9.4% increase on the E955.7m generated in 2008. The sum reflects the degree to which the French company has capitalised on the demand for launch capacity caused by the…
Arianespace has announced that it will record total revenue of E1.046bn for 2009, a 9.4% increase on the E955.7m generated in 2008. The sum reflects the degree to which the French company has capitalised on the demand for launch capacity caused by the entry into bankruptcy of Sea Launch.
This demand allowed Arianespace to successfully mount a record seven Ariane 5 missions in 2009, launching nine geo-stationery satellites, the Herschel space telescope, the Planck space observatory and the Helios 2B observation satellite.
Arianespace have stated that the company will definitely break even when full results are reported in early spring. CEO Jean Yves Le Gall told reporters in Paris that he anticipates posting a slight profit for the year.
In its New Year statement, the company stated that it would likely launch six to seven Ariane 5 rockets in 2010, 30 years since the founding of Arianespace. This manifest includes the second Automated Transit Vehicle (ATV) mission to the International Space Station.
Arianespace cautioned that the status of the commercial launch sector was partially masked in 2009 due to the extra volume of new contracts that appeared on the market as a result of companies switching from formerly agreed Sea Launch flights to Arianespace and International Launch Services.
22 new commercial launch contracts were signed in 2009. However, only 14 of these were brand new, with the others the result of lost Sea Launch flights or, in the case of Avanti’s HYLAS 1, the delay to the introduction of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launcher.
Arianespace won nine of the 14 brand new contracts, and 11 in all, as well as contracts for five Soyuz launches.
The first Arianespace Soyuz launch from Guiana Space Centre in Kourou will take place in mid-2010.
The total Arianespace backlog comprises 29 geo-stationery satellite launches, six ATV missions and 12 Soyuz flights, all of which guarantees operations for the next three years.
