Launch services provider Arianespace has stated that 2012 will be its busiest ever with seven Ariane 5 launches, five Soyuz launches and the inaugural launch of the Vega rocket scheduled to take place during the year.
Speaking at the company’s New…
Launch services provider Arianespace has stated that 2012 will be its busiest ever with seven Ariane 5 launches, five Soyuz launches and the inaugural launch of the Vega rocket scheduled to take place during the year.
Speaking at the company’s New Year press conference, Arianespace CEO Jean-Yves Le Gall stated that the company ended 2011 with a new record backlog of €4.5bn, having netting 10 of the 21 commercial spacecraft contracts signed by launch service providers in 2011. Overall, Arianespace has 21 Ariane 5 launches, 15 Soyuz launches (13 from the Spaceport in French Guiana and 2 from Kazakhstan’s Baikonur Cosmodrome) and 2 small-satellite Vega launches slated to take place over the next three years.
The first mission of 2012 will be the maiden flight of the Vega rocket in February, when it is due to orbit the Lares and AlmaSat-1 birds as well as several microsatellites. The first Ariane 5 launch will be the European Space Agency’s third Automated Transfer Vehicle, which is due to take place on 9 March. While the next Soyuz flight will take place from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on 23 May and will carry Europe’s MetOp-B meteorological satellites. The first Soyuz launch from French Guiana is targeted for mid-2012 when two further Galileo satellites are due to go up.
However, even with this robust backlog and the emergence of two new launch vehicles and with them the expected benefits of side-by-side launch operations in French Guiana, the company’s ability to turn a profit still remains an issue. Arianespace estimates that it logged total revenues of €985m in 2011. Despite this being a 9.8% rise on 2010, when it generated revenues of €897m, the company anticipates 2011 being a break-even year.
Issues over European hardware supply chain costs continue and the European Space Agency is investigating potentially restructuring the vehicle production process. A report by the Space Commission, part of the Air and Space Academy based in Toulouse, released at the end of 2010 suggested overhauling the system, offering potential solutions such as putting the responsibility of production contracts directly under Arianespace’s control, with ESA subsequently taking over some or all of the French Space Agency CNES’s 34% stake in the company, or setting up a new industrial concept involving transferring the delegation of production orders into the hands of the prime contractors in charge of the development of Ariane, Vega and future launchers.
