EVRY, France - To make up for costly delays that left its French Guiana launch pads idle from February through August, Arianespace is packing eight launches into the last four and a half months of 1999.
"Mathematically, we'll break a new record," said Jean-Charles Vincent, director of operations and Arianespace chief at the Guiana Space Center complex, in South America.
The current record for the French-led consortium was set in 1995, with nine launches in less than six months. The delays making this year's irregular schedule necessary were caused by customer problems in the manufacture of satellites that Arianespace rockets boost into orbit. Four disrupted the whole year's launch schedule.
The fast pace that started last August will peak in November. Four programs, with three Ariane-4s and one Ariane-5, are organized to run concurrently, using two launch pads.
Along with the accelerated schedule will come the introduction of a new rocket. Flight "V 119" on December 10 will mark the first commercial flight of the Ariane 5 model, which took 12-plus years and $9 billion to develop.
Many years of experience and state-of-the-art software has enabled to cut an Ariane-4 launch program down to 25- to 27-day timetable. Arianespace teams are able to conduct two liftoffs in 17 days. That pace is unmatched in the world.
"This is an exceptional and exciting time for us. But we remain calm and we are very cautious to avoid the work stress of our teams." said Vincent.
For the next Ariane-5, the 8-week launch program will start October 19.
"Even next year, with 6 Ariane-5 launches scheduled, the Ariane-5 launch campaign won't be progressively shortened", observed Vincent. He expects "experience and feedback," however, to bring new procedures that will cut preparation time in half by the end of 2000.
Vincent says there will be no major change in the operations plan, but Arianespace launch and ground teams must work quickly and efficiently. To hold the actual quickened pace, the teams work 6 days a week instead of 5. Of the 1,500 people employed at the Guiana Space Center, 450 work permanently for Arianespace or under its authority.
In general, about 160 are involved in maintenance and 300 in the actual multiple launch programs, but many wear two hats to optimize the use of their skills. Each launch requires an extra 70-person team to come from Europe where the rocket segments are built by different contractors.
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