Julian Moxon/PARIS
Arianespace had a "difficult year" in 1999, despite launching 80% of available satellites and succeeding with a "perfect" first commercial launch of the Ariane 5, says director-general Jean-Marie Luton.
While it won 12 of the 14 contracts put out for tender, the achievement is "unrepresentative", says Luton, because many of the contracts resulted from failures which beset competing launchers.
Delays in satellite deliveries due to technical problems contributed to a rush of demand for launches in the second half of the year and a record for the company in December, when three rockets were launched in as many weeks. Arianespace has achieved 51 successful consecutive Ariane 4 launches .
This year, Arianespace plans to launch eight satellites aboard Ariane 4s and a further 10 on Ariane 5s (in five double launches). The next Ariane 5 launch is in March, with two telecommunications satellites aboard - Worldspace Asiastar and Insat 3B. Plans foresee a further six Ariane 5 launches in 2001 and 2002, rising to eight in 2003.
Luton says 23 Ariane 4s remain to be launched, and 32 Ariane 5s in the current batch. "If things go well in 2000 we won't need to order any more Ariane 4s," he says.
Luton believes the satellite market will rebound in 2000. "We've seen a net increase in the number of calls for offers this year. What we also see is that they're making investment plans covering systems of several satellites. All this points to Ariane 5 being the right launcher for the market."
Arianespace will invest Fr1 billion ($156.8 million) in the Kourou launch centre over the next four years. This could include spending on a launch facility for the Soyuz launcher at the heart of the Starsem consortium, in which Arianespace is a partner. The first six Starstem launches, all of Globalstar satellites, were conducted in 1999.
Source: Flight International