Heavy-lifting Ariane 5 boosters will be lighting up the skies of French Guiana for many years to come, thanks to recent action taken by the launcher's commercial operator, Arianespace.
At the recent Paris Air Show the Evry, France-based launch company announced it had signed a letter ordering its prime contractor, EADS Space Transportation, to build another batch of 30 Ariane 5 rockets.
Arianespace procures the rockets like this as a way of essentially "buying in bulk," a move that helps lower the construction costs and allows the company to offer less expensive launch services.
EADS Space Transportation will now manage the effort to build the two-stage core vehicle with a nose fairing and attached twin solid rocket boosters.
Meanwhile, Arianespace is continuing its plans to launch the Vega rocket from the Guiana Space Center. The joint Russian-European company Starsem also continues to lay the foundation for launching Soyuz rockets from South America.
As for the booster seen here, it
