Then came the ides of May for the U.S., with launch failures of the advanced U.S. remote sensing satellite Ikonos-1 and its Athena launcher, doomed by a clamshell housing over the satellite that failed to fall away. A pair of Titan boosters failed as well, skewing their Air Force satellites into the wrong orbits, rendering them so much space junk. And the big new Delta III commercial rocket, bound to compete with the French Ariane fleets failed again, making it two for two since last summer's inaugural launch explosion.
For France, it wasnt much better. If commercial space in the U.S. has been plagued by malfunction and failure, France, the leader in commercial space transportation for decades, has had launch problems of another sort. "It's manifest management," says Arianespace U.S. President Doug Heydon. What Heydon means is matching the production, delivery, and preparation of rocket's satellite payloads with the launching calendar. And for 1999, the French rocketeers have had the gloomiest record in many a year.
Down at France's Spaceport, Kourou, in the shadow of Devil's Island prison in South America, the Ariane 4 V-118 rocket has been waiting to launch for months. The rocket is ready, but its satellite passengers are not. First the rocket was to blast off in April, then early May, and then mid-May. While the stacked stages of the booster were waiting, the vehicle's New Skies K-TV sat was still at the builders factory in Europe. The booster was returned to its assembly hangar near the pad and put into storage. Work continues on the satellite, with no new launch date selected. The satellite, at least, is now in the launch-site preparation building, a bit closer to the pad.
The company's Ariane 5 launch hasn't fared any better. The important fourth launch of the largest French rocket ever, a direct competitor to the biggest U.S. rockets, was first set for spring, then delayed until early summer. Now the rocket has been postponed until late summer or after, waiting for both its AsiaStar and Telkom-1 satellites to be finished and shipped to Kourou for flight. That launch is to be the first under the direct control of Arianespace, as it emerges from the French Space Agency CNES' flight test program. Instead of a timely departure, the first commercial Ariane 5 sits waiting for lift-off.
The delays of these two rockets have wrecked havoc on the rest of Arianespace's launch manifest plan. Last year, the company lofted 14 satellites aboard 10 Ariane 4 boosters. A space capsule test vehicle was also lifted by a single Ariane 5. Now with more than half of 1999 gone and only three launches under its belt, French commercial space planners are about to jump start their launch base in a bold stroke to preserve profits. At last month's Paris Air Show, Arianespace said that it was prepared to do something that it had never done before: fly as many as three Ariane 5s and five to six Ariane 4s in the remaining five months of 1999, beginning in late July.
The goal is to launch some 12 satellites before year's end, even if it must rearrange launch plans. Among the payloads that might be shuffled about are the AsiaStar for a U.S. operator; Galaxy 11, also for a U.S. customer; Helios 1B, a French reconnaissance satellite for that country's Defence Ministry; and Japan's Superbird 4.
French rocket engineers in Kourou will know by the end of the month if the advanced launch schedule will be attempted. "This is a bold increase in the launch rate, beginning in late July," the company said.
Of course, that will depend on "manifest management."
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