Arianespace arrives at Paris this year in an exceptionally strong position. So far in 2015 Europe’s launch operator has lofted four payloads into orbit, three with its flagship Ariane 5 system, and one with a Soyuz rocket - all from its main launch base in French Guiana. Moreover, its plans for Ariane 6 were approved last December, while the euro’s weakness has given the launch company a strong competitive boost.

“The low euro allows a return to fair competition,” says Arianespace chairman and chief executive Stéphane Israël. “It's difficult to face competition with a currency that is so strong. Now we think the euro/dollar is more balanced, and this gives us more flexibility in our pricing policy and a strong competitive advantage. So, in a period of time when competition is increasing, the fact that the euro is lower than it used to be is very welcome by us and by our customers.”

Israël spoke with Flightglobal at the company’s stand at the recent Communicasia event in Singapore. The Asia Pacific is a strong growth market for both satellites and launch services. The interview came almost exactly one year it was announced that two key shareholders, Airbus Group and Safran, would become joint partners in a launch vehicle venture. Airbus Safran Launchers is now the largest shareholder in Arianespace with a 39% stake. In the last year the joint venture has grown to 400 employees, and in the future it will grow to 8,000, says Israel.

Israël adds that talks continue with the French government about French agency CNES’s 34.7% stake in Arianespace – although he declined to provide further details about the discussions. If a deal is concluded, the joint venture will hold over 70% of Arianespace’s shares.

Israël stresses that the primary goal of the changes is to give industry far more responsibility for Ariane 6 than in the Ariane 5 programme.

“Airbus Safran will have the responsibility of the design of the rocket,” he says. “Today this sits with CNES. Moreover, there will be stronger ties between Arianespace and industry for Ariane 6. If industry becomes the primary shareholder of Arianespace, then for sure Arianespace will be closer to the Airbus Safran joint venture, because it will represent a new order.”

Ariane 6 will have similar payload characteristics to the Ariane 5, and be capable of putting a payload of 10.5t in geostationary transfer orbit (GTO). There are, however, important differences. First, Ariane 6 will come in two versions: the Ariane 62 and Ariane 64. The Ariane 62 is optimised for putting smaller satellites into low earth orbit, with two solid thrusters in addition to the main rocket’s main and upper stages. The Ariane 64 is optimised for taking commercial satellites farther up into GTO.

Another key difference is a re-ignitable upper stage - the Ariane 5’s upper stage can only be fired once.

“The re-ignitable engine allows for more complex missions than we perform today,” says Israël. “The main stage will not be very different. It will have the same engine, but we will optimise it to reduce costs.”

Unlike nascent commercial operators such as Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Ariane 6 will not have a reusable main stage – although Arianespace is keeping its options open on this count.

“Ariane 6 will not be reusable, but it is open to such an evolution if necessary,” says Israël. “The question of reusability is not a question of technology, as we all think it is possible to have a reusable launcher. It is a problem of the business case. To make it sustainable you have certain parameters and these are not easy to meet.”

He says that a reusable main stage compromises performance in that some of the rocket’s performance is dedicated not to launching the payload into space, but returning a portion of it to earth. “With Ariane 5 we use all our performance getting to space. We are not in a position to lose 30% performance for the sake of reusability.”

Moreover, the refurbishment of the used main stage can be costly in and of itself, and customers may not be willing to mount a valuable satellite on a main stage that has already flown. Finally, Israel says that Arianespace’s market is not calling for this feature.

“We have spoken to customers, and they have said very clearly that whatever competitors do with reusability, Arianespace should go straight to Ariane 6 in 2020, and should absolutely not deviate from this priority.”

Apart from commercial launches Arianespace will also continue to play a role in space exploration. In October 2018 an Ariane 5 is scheduled to carry NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope into space. Optimised for infrared wavelengths, the telescope enable Webb to look further back in time to find the first galaxies that formed in the early Universe.

Source: Flight Daily News

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