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Aviation History
2001
2001 - 0035.PDF
Satellites launched in 2000 Note: Data complete to 15 December. * including ISS. 40, 35 "ST 30 I25 £2.20- 10 a c ro 10 ^ ||_ £>£ to c •/ 7 y .# £ i / OARETH BURGESS 01" The major theme of this year for commercial launch providers is likely to be increasing the payload capability of their vehicles to keep pace with the growing size of geosynchronous-orbit (GEO) communications satellites. Arianespace currently holds the high ground, its Ariane 5 having lifted a record 6.3t payload to GTO in November. But other launch providers are snapping at the European company's heels. Russia plans to launch the first uprated Proton/Breeze M early in the new year. This vehicle can plade payloads up to 5.5t in GTO, and will be the largest booster marketed by International Launch Services (ILS) until the 5-8t Atlas V family enters service. Meanwhile, the 4.5t-payload Atlas IIIB, an uprated version of ILS's current Russian-engined Atlas IHA, will make its maiden flight this year. Pressure will come on Arianespace when Boeing launches its first Delta IV late this year. The initial "Medium +" vehicle has a GTO pay- load exceeding 5.8t, but within two years the Delta IV family will include a "Heavy" vehicle capable of lifting more than 13t to GTO. Europe's response is a programme to enhance H.UL'JatWMIUIIJW Vehicle Ariane 5 Delta IV Medium+4.2 Proton M/Breeze Zenit 3SL LM3B Proton DM Ariane 44L Atlas IIIB Ariane 44LP Atlas IIIA H2A202 Delta III Atlas HAS Ariane 42L Ariane 44P LM2E/EPKM LM2E/Star 63F Atlas HA Ariane 42P LM3A GSLV Delta II LM3 l£IMtMUfcHM!M:Mi Operator Arianespace Boeing ILS Sea Launch CGWIC ILS Arianespace ILS Arianespace ILS RSC Boeing ILS Arianespace Arianespace CGWIC CGWIC ILS Arianespace CGWIC ISR0 Boeing CGWIC Notes: Complete to 15 December 2000. CGWIC - International Launch Services. LM - Long March. Region Europe USA USA/Russia USA/International China USA/Russia Europe USA/Russia Europe USA/Russia Japan USA USA/Russia Europe Europe China China USA/Russia Europe China India USA China GTO (kg) 6,000 5,845 5,500 5,250 5,000 4,930 4,900 4,500 4,170 4,060 4,000 3,810 3,730 3,450 3,380 3,500 3,140 3,045 2,920 2,500 2,500 2,000 1,450 Commercial launches 3 1st launch 2001 1st launch 2001 2 (and 1 failure) 0 8 1 1st launch 2001 3 1 1st launch 2001 1 (Demo) 3 Retires 2001 3 1 0 0 4 Retires 2001 0 0 1st launch 2001 0 0 China Great Wall Industry Corporation. GSVL - Geostationary Satellite Launch Vehicle. ILS - RSC - Japanese Rocket Systems Corporation. ISR0 • Indian Space Research Organisation. the Ariane 5's performance, beginning with an improved upper stage which is scheduled to enter service late this year and which will boost GTO payload to as much as 8t. Behind the push for higher payloads is the increasing size of GEO satellites. The current record was set in October, when Boeing-led Sea Launch placed the United Arab Emirates' Thuraya mobile communications satellite into GTO>. Built by Hughes (now Boeing), the 5. It Thuraya is the heaviest commercial spacecraft launched to date — but mere are bigger birds waiting in the wings: Alcatel's 6t Spacebus 4000 and the 7.5t Space Systems/Loral 20:20. Driving the demand for bigger satellites is the move into broadband communications pay- loads to serve the rapidly growing Internet mar ket. Intelsat, to be privatised this year, plans to place a contract for a $1.5 billion next-genera tion broadband satellite system by mid-2001. Such orders are in the pipeline from other major satellite operators. Despite the internet explosion, overall sales of GEO satellites are expected to remain flat for the next few years. The low earth orbit (LEO) market, meanwhile, is unlikely to recover from Iridium's bankruptcy for some time. Iridium will return to full operation this year, under its new owners, but the market malaise lingers on and a question mark still hangs over the financial viability of GlobalStar. A knock-on effect of Iridium's financial col lapse in 1999 is that the maiden flights of pri vately developed low-cost launch vehicles that had been planned for this year will no longer take place. Beal Aerospace ceased operations last year and Kistler Aerospace has yet to raise the funds to complete its K-l booster. This leaves the field clear for the established players. Arianespace and ILS each expect to launch about one commercial payload a month in 2 001. Boeing's Delta II, meanwhile, will be kept busy flying spacecraft for the US Government, including the "commercial" launch of an exper imental lightweight GEO satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office. Delta lis will launch several US Air Force global positioning system satellites plus a number of payloads for NASA — including the 2001 Mars Odyssey. Named for science fiction author Arthur C Clarke, co-creator of 2007: A Space Odyssey, Mars Odyssey will be launched in April to begin a long-term exploration programme. The spacecraft will join the successful Mars Global Surveyor in orbit around the 'red planet' in October and study potential landing sites for future robotic missions scheduled to start in 2003. After the failures of the Mars Climate Orbiter and Mars Polar Lander in 1999, NASA needs a success if its programme is to continue. FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 2 - 8 January 2001
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