TIM FURNISS / LONDON
Sales of uprated ECA models encourage European company after initial failure
Arianespace will this month announce an $86 billion order for 30 more Ariane 5 launchers. Three or four of the boosters will be the current 5G standard and the rest uprated ECA models, says Jean-Yves Le Gall, director of the European launch provider.
The first boosters will be delivered from 2005. Meanwhile, four Ariane 5s are on order to fill the gap before deliveries of the new batch begin.
The first commercial ECA is due to be launched in 2005, but hinges on the success of the ECA recovery programme after the failure of the first ECA flight in December 2002.
The loss of two communications satellites following the ECA's Vulcain 2 first-stage engine failure sparked a crisis in the French space industry. Ministers representing the 15 member nations of the European Space Agency have agreed to spend almost $500 million to return the ECA to flight and ensure the future of the troubled programme (Flight International, 3-9 June).
ESA says $53 million will be spent on the redesign and manufacture of the Vulcain 2 first-stage engine, $71 million on testing and improvements to the ECA and $271 million on the two qualification launches of the ECA in 2004, one of which will carry a dummy payload in March 2004 and the other - using a different upper stage - the first ESA Automatic Transfer Vehicle to the International Space Station in September 2004.
The prime contractor for the programme will be EADS, with Arianespace's role restricted to marketing, and operations handled by the French space agency CNES in Kourou, French Guiana.
Arianespace will also add the Russian Soyuz booster to its inventory of the Ariane 5 and the planned Vega low-Earth orbit satellite launcher, providing a full satellite service from Kourou for all types of payload.
From Kourou, the Soyuz will be able to carry a 2t communications satellite into geostationary transfer orbit, complementing the Ariane 5 dual-satellite capability.
Arianespace will continue to operate the Ariane 5G for several years. There are nine 5Gs in production - not including those to be ordered in the new batch - with four 5Gs scheduled to fly in 2003 and five in 2004.
The next 5G launch, planned for 16 June, will carry the Japanese BSAT 2c and Australian Optus C1 communications satellites.
ESA's Rosetta comet explorer mission will be launched in February 2004, 13 months later than planned because of the December 2002 Ariane 5 ECA failure. Rosetta, flying on a proven 5G booster, will be aimed for a rendezvous with the comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko, rather than the original target Wirtanen, and will reach its destination in November 2014.Source: Flight International
