PARIS, France – After a frustrating year marked by a slower-than-expected launch market and an irregular launch schedule, the European consortium Arianespace is expecting a robust Year 2000 to strengthen its world leadership in commercial space launches.
"The market shows signs of clear recovery, Especially with American operators of geostationary communication satellites," said Jean-Marie Luton, Arianespace Chairman and CEO in his annual New Year's press briefing in Paris.
1999 wasn’t a good year for the world launch market as only 15 geostationary transfer orbit launch contracts were in competition internationally, compared to 25 launch contracts in 1998. That said, Arianespace still won 80 percent of the launch contracts by booking 12 orders and recorded launch revenues of just under $1 billion.
This was less than expected, said Luton, but there are clear signs of an upswing for 2000.
"Since last December, three to four new competitive requests for several satellite-launch service proposals have been issued by satellite manufacturers or operators and this trend is expected to continue in the months to come," Jean-Max Puech, vice-president of prospective and strategy for Arianespace told space.com.
"Our objective is to win 15 new orders in 2000," Luton said.
Of the 16 satellites to be launched by Arianespace from the world's busiest satellite launching site in the jungles of French Guiana, 10 will rise on Ariane-5s rockets (two per launch) with the remainder launching on Ariane 4s rockets.
Arianespace's current launch backlog of 41 satellites represents $3.1 billion in business.
Luton announced the French-led consortium’s first order of the year 2000: Spot 5, which is an Earth imaging satellite expected to be launched in 2002.
Between now and early 2003, the new heavy lift Ariane-5 is progressively introduced in parallel with the phasing out of the Ariane-4, the highly successful workhorse of privately-operated Arianespace for the past 12 years. Only 23 of them remain to be launched.
Arianespace demonstrated its ability to adapt to changing conditions in 1999, succeeding in performing a total of 10 flights (nine Ariane 4s and one Ariane 5) despite a five-month stand-down that resulted from customer problems in the manufacture of satellites.
"Flexibility is key, and we clearly demonstrated our flexibility in 1999" Luton stated Ariane 4 achieved 51 consecutive launch successes. Ariane 4 missions during 1999 placed a combined total payload mass of more than 30,000 kg. into accurate orbits.
"We were acknowledged for our emphasis on reliability, which we will continue this year without letup. In the face of numerous launch failures experienced by our competitors (Proton, Delta-3, and Titan-4) in 1999, the satellite industry turned to Arianespace – and we were ready to help our key clients with 'emergency' launches." Luton said. "It was a year when satellite operators realized that quality is a primordial element of the launch business,"
The current Ariane-5 can put two satellites totaling 5.9 tons into geostationary orbit. By 2003, capacity should reach 10.5 tons and in 2005, 12 tons.
Cost also remains an important issue in the highly competitive marketplace, and Arianespace is continuing its efforts to drive down the production cost of new heavy lift Ariane-5 rocket, to retain its competitive edge in the multi-billion-dollar-market.
To promote their new launcher, Arianespace added last summer a 20-Ariane-5 order to the 14 already built in 1995. "We already have achieved a 35 percent reduction of production cost between these two orders," said Luton.
Ariane 5's maiden commercial flight, performed Dec. 10, was a complete success and demonstrated the capabilities of this new-generation heavy-lift vehicle.
"As a result of its excellent performance, Ariane 5 demonstrated an orbit injection precision superior to that of Ariane 4 – which already is an industry reference," Luton said. "The mission's success demonstrates that all of the experience gained through Ariane 4 has been applied to Ariane 5.
The European Space Agency mission's XMM large X-ray observatory satellite separated from Ariane 5 on time, and was released into orbit with a very accurate pointing position.
The next commercial Ariane 5 flight is set for March, with a dual payload of the AsiaStar and Insat 3B satellites. The first Arianespace launch in 2000 is scheduled to begin Jan. 24, when an Ariane 4 is to carry the U.S.-made PanAmSat's Galaxy XR satellite.
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