Arianespace Steps Up the Mission Pace Through 2006 and Beyond

Arianespace, Arianespace is entering a period of intense activity as it pursues a fast-paced mission schedule to accommodate the company's growing satellite backlog.  
 
Speaking to journalists at the World Satellite Business Week conference in Paris today, CEO Jean-Yves Le Gall said Arianespace expects to conduct three Ariane 5 launches before year-end with a total of six satellites, while its Starsem affiliate is to perform a pair of Soyuz missions that will carry another two spacecraft into orbit.  
 
Arianespace's upcoming Ariane 5 flight remains on target for a September 29 liftoff from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana, using the vehicle's dual launch capability to orbit France's Syracuse 3A military communications satellite and the U.S. Galaxy 15 commercial telecom spacecraft. This mission will be performed by an Ariane 5 Generic launcher version.  
 
The two other Ariane 5 flights planned before year-end from Europe's Spaceport also will be dual satellite payload missions, using an Ariane 5 Generic and a heavy-lift Ariane 5 ECA vehicle. Spacecraft scheduled to be orbited by these launches are the Insat 4A telecommunications satellite for India, Europe's MSG 2 meteorological platform, the U.S. Spaceway 2 broadband spacecraft and Indonesia's TELKOM 2 C-band telecommunications satellite.  
 
Soyuz flights to be performed by Starsem from Baikonur Cosmodrome are an October 26 mission with the European Space Agency's Venus Express interplanetary spacecraft, followed by the orbiting of a Galileo System Test Bed (GSTB) satellite for Europe's new space-based navigation system.  
 
Next year also will be very busy for Arianespace, as the company plans to perform five or six missions with Ariane 5, while Starsem is to carry out three Soyuz flights.  
 
Maintaining a sustained mission rate for Ariane 5 through 2006 and beyond is possible because of the strong industrial production network established for the launcher, as well as the state-of-the-art processing facilities for customer satellites at Europe's Spaceport.  
 
“Our capability to process numerous satellites in parallel is extremely important, and is the result of investments that we have made in our ground infrastructure,” Le Gall said. “The modern S5 satellite processing facility at Europe's Spaceport has handled as many as six spacecraft at a time – which is unmatched anywhere in the world.”  
 
Le Gall said yesterday's signing of a new launch contract with Shin Satellite for its THAICOM 5 spacecraft maintains Arianespace's backlog of payloads at a healthy total of 40 – the strongest in the industry.