Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has agreed to standardise launch services with French giant Arianespace as it seeks a wider slice of the global commercial market.
The companies have signed an MoU to develop synergies in how they prepare satellites…
Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has agreed to standardise launch services with French giant Arianespace as it seeks a wider slice of the global commercial market.
The companies have signed an MoU to develop synergies in how they prepare satellites for launch, enabling operators to switch between them more easily if there was a problem.
Their deal builds on a “launch services alliance’ Arianespace has had with Japan’s space industry since the 1990s, when discussions on standardising rocket and payload interfaces first began.
Although up to now that alliance has been largely untouched, MHI has vowed to aggressively ramp up its overseas commercial activities following the privatisation of the Japanese H-IIB heavy lift rocket late last year.
MHI chairman Hideaki Omiya said: “We are confident that by cooperating with Arianespace we will be able to provide customers with more attractive services of higher value. Relations between France and MHI span many different areas, and with this latest development we look forward to the further strengthening or our ties.”
MHI entered the rocket launch services business in 2007 using Japan’s medium-lift rocket H-IIA. In May 2012 the company placed a satellite for its first overseas customer with the Kompsat-3 mission in South Korea.
With the addition of the H-IIB rocket, MHI is able to lift up to eight tonnes, giving it the capacity to launch multiple satellites or larger high throughput birds. It also intends to leverage on Japan’s export credit agencies – Nippon Export and Investment Insurance (NEXI) and Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) – to gain scale.
For Arianespace, the MoU will further embed the group into the Asian market as it competes with the other major players of China, Russia and the US on an international scale.
On 21 May Arianespace celebrated 27 years in Japan after opening its Tokyo office in 1986. A few years later in 1989 the French company placed JCSAT-1, Japan’s first commercial satellite, and since then it has bagged 27 of the country’s 36 competitive launch contracts.
Globally, Arianespace claims to hold more than 50% of the launch market. It has a backlog of around €4.7bn from 24 customers.
Speaking after the MoU was signed, Jacques Breton, Arianespace’s senior vice president of sales and customers, said: “This cooperative arrangement should enable both MHI and us to propose services to our clients that are more flexible and better suited to their needs.
“Japan has been a major partner for Arianespace for 30 years, and will continue to be so for many more years to come.”
