PARIS - Start-up broadband satellite
operator Avanti Communications Group of London has raised some $68 million in
cash from institutional investors and the British government to pay the
additional costs it will incur in shifting the launch of its first satellite to
an Ariane 5 or Soyuz rocket instead of
a Falcon 9 vehicle operated by Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX), Avanti said.
The new
financing, totaling 42.2 million British pounds ($68.9 million), includes 10.7 million pounds from
the European Space Agency (ESA) that came from British ESA contributions.
The
decision to switch
launchers, which had long been expected, will permit Avanti to remove
doubts about its viability among customers and
prospective investors, Avanti said in a July 1 statement to shareholders and
the London Stock Exchange.
Avanti's
Hylas Ka- and Ku-band broadband and high-definition television satellite, now
under construction at Astrium Satellites of Europe and the Indian Space
Research Organisation/Antrix of India, is scheduled to be ready for launch in
mid-2010, according to its prime contractor, Astrium.
Industry
officials said Evry, France-based Arianespace agreed to reserve a slot for the
2,500-kilogram Hylas satellite in mid-2010 as either a co-passenger on a heavy-lift
Ariane 5 rocket or as the main customer for a launch of the European
version of Russia's Soyuz rocket. A formal launch services contract
announcement is expected by late July.
Arianespace officials have said the
manifest for the European Soyuz, whose inaugural flight from Europe's Guiana
Space Center in French Guiana has slipped to February 2010, is crowded for the
rest of that year - no more than four Soyuz launches in total are expected,
including the inaugural flight - making it more likely that Hylas will fly aboard
an Ariane 5.
Avanti's Hylas had been scheduled
for launch in late 2009. The yearlong delay has been caused by unexpected
difficulties Astrium has encountered in completing the flexible Ka-band payload,
whose development has been funded in part by ESA through British government's
ESA investment.
It remains unclear when the
satellite will be ready for launch. Astrium Satellites Chief Executive Evert
Dudok on June 16 said the Ka-band payload's development should be completed in
time to ship it to India in August for integration with the platform.
Hawthorne,
Calif.-based SpaceX is also behind schedule with its new
Falcon 9 launch vehicle, which previously had been slated to make its debut
in 2007. Company spokeswoman Cassie Kloberdanz said in a July 9 statement that
the company is on track for an inaugural launch this year. Kloberdanz said the
company would have no comment on the Avanti situation.
Avanti has
been leasing capacity on other commercial satellites as it awaits the Hylas
launch, but Hylas remains central to the company's broadband service offer.
Avanti had
criticized Arianespace as overly expensive and insufficiently entrepreneurial
when it selected SpaceX in mid-2007, but industry officials have long said the
company eventually would be forced to reconsider the European launch provider
given the risks and delays usually associated with the development of new
rockets like Falcon 9.
Avanti
announced in February 2008 that it had secured a Falcon 9 insurance policy
valued at 89 million British pounds covering the satellite's launch and its
first year in orbit. SpaceX said at the time that the Avanti contract was
valued at $150 million including the Hylas flight and three additional Avanti
launches for satellites Avanti has yet to order.
In the
company's July 1 statement to the London Stock Exchange, Avanti Chief Executive
David Williams said the launch risk concerns of prospective
customers forced Avanti to cancel Hylas' Falcon 9 launch.
"Our
success in pre-sales [of Hylas capacity] has been pleasing but there are some
significant potential government and commercial customers whose commitment can
only be secured early by reducing the perception of launch risks," Williams
said.
Williams said the company continues
to negotiate with "our government sponsor" for financing a second satellite.
"[W]e hope to conclude a transaction which would be highly accretive to
shareholders before the end of the year. Therefore for several reasons the
upgrade of our launcher increases the quality of our project strongly."
Avanti said it had already signed
agreements with 47 distributors in 11 nations who "have already committed to 13
percent of Hylas capacity at launch."
Avanti spokesman Paul Dulieu said
Williams would not be available to comment on Hylas' development.
A spokeswoman for the British
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills on July 8 confirmed that the
department's Technology Strategy Board, a partner in the British National Space
Center, agreed to invest an additional 10.7 million pounds into Avanti's Hylas
project through ESA's Artes telecommunications development program.
ESA and
Avanti signed their initial Hylas contract in mid-2006. ESA said its financing,
mainly through the British government, was in the amount of 34 million euros
($47.5 million). ESA said at the time that
the entire project was expected to cost 120 million euros, with a launch then
planned for late 2008.
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