WASHINGTON Despite six new launch contracts signed this year and a successful launch of an Ariane 4 rocket on Thursday, Arianespace officials arent resting on their achievements. Company sources say the number of launch contracts will double before the end of the year, now just 120 days away.

Knowledgeable industry sources say Arianespace has been actively trading on the grounding of the U.S. Atlas and Delta III because of technical problems, making both the Ariane 4 and 5 boosters available for quick launch opportunities.

Ariane's ELA2 launch complex in Kourou, French Guiana isnt shared with any other service provider, analysts point out, unlike the range at Cape Canaveral, which must be reconfigured each time a switch is made in space vehicles.

The recent capture of the Loral satellite launch held earthbound by the Atlas III delay may be just the start of the raiding of U.S. customers left holding their rockets while the U.S. fixes troubles with the RL-10 upper stage engine common to both the larger Delta vehicle and the Atlas.

The quick turnaround of available Ariane 4 vehicles has been made possible by launch delays facing the European carrier as well. But splitting up satellites and flying them off aboard single Ariane 42-P variants is a flexibility not available today in the U.S. expendable fleet--at least not yet.

Ariane officials bemoaned the "depressed market" for launch services at Thursdays Telkom-1 launch. But at the same time, they predicted that 12 launch contracts for 1999 would be a healthy load indeed.

Since 1984, Arianespace has booked 200 civil, commercial, and military satellite launch contracts with 55 satellite operators worldwide. Of these, 100 have been made in the United States.

Of a total 107 commercial launches, 158 satellites have been orbited, mostly by versions of the Ariane 4 vehicle. The company claims more than half of the worlds operational telecommunications satellites have been launched into space on some version of an Ariane rocket.

It has also orbited eight military satellites for NATO-member states, including France, Italy, and the United Kingdom. Arianespace has offices in France, Tokyo, Washington, DC, and Singapore, but only employs 300 people worldwide.

As of Friday morning, Arianespace reports 41 satellites still in their manifest book to be flown. While the price of a launcher is rarely divulged, those orders could represent $2 billion worth of launch business, and possibly more. The firm says that these 41 launches could also represent two full years worth of launch operations from its Kourou, French Guiana space facility.