Tim Furniss/LONDON
Never forget, says Arianespace, "-we are not selling a launcher but a delivery service, every three to four weeks, whether we use Ariane 5 or Ariane 4". This "transparent service" philosophy was emphasised at the ILA Berlin air show in late May by Jean-Marie Luton, the launch company's chairman and chief executive.
In the "-intensely competitive [satellite launch] environment, Arianespace will have to demonstrate its adaptability", says Luton. The company plans to do this using its current Ariane 4, which will continue to be flown until 2003, coupled with several versions of the Ariane 5.
Through its link with the Starsem joint venture, the Russian Soyuz booster is available to Arianespace customers and the company plans to "set up a single structure to co-ordinate an array of launchers from different sources to provide launch services for satellite constellations, and to seek strategic alliances with new industrial partners with complementary capabilities". These moves will result in "transparent contractual and technical relations with satellite operators", the company believes.
Arianespace's hallmark has always been a range of launcher capabilities, plus flexibility and availability, with high launch rates. It is the only company able to offer dual-launch capability for large geostationary-orbiting (GEO) communications satellites. Its equatorial launch site at Kourou, French Guyana, also offers excellent orbital accuracy for GEO satellites.
But Arianespace is "-facing a market environment undergoing a profound quantitative and qualitative transformation, while competition is fiercer and more diversified than ever", Luton says. Arianespace is having to expand its services beyond the traditional GEO segment, by providing customers with a diversified array of launches to low Earth orbit (LEO) and medium Earth orbit (MEO). The LEO and MEO destinations will largely be used for satellite constellations providing mobile communications and "Internet in the sky" services.
Arianespace predicts demand for 60-90 launches a year from 2001-5, of which 40-70 should be accessible to commercial launch providers. The company believes that, by about 2002-3, some 40-50% of the market could be for LEO and MEO satellites.
FINAL UPGRADES DEFINITION
Luton says these market requirements have influenced the final definition of upgrades to the Ariane 5. A new, re-ignitable, upper stage will allow the launcher to compete for the growing number of satellite constellation bookings from 2001. Ariane payload capability to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO) will be increased from about 5,800kg now, to 9,000kg in 2001, followed by further growth, to 11,000kg, in 2005.
The first upgrade is a basic change to parts of the vehicle, increasing GTO performance to 6,400kg. The already funded introduction of a Vulcain 2 main stage engine will take this to 7,400kg. The major upgrade will be the introduction of a cryogenic upper stage, which will increase GTO performance to 9,000kg by 2001. This will use a single-burn engine based on the SEP HB7B third stage of the Ariane 4, and will be followed in 2005 by an SEP/Dasa restartable engine, to achieve 11,000kg. The re-ignitable upper stage will be based on a derivative of the existing Aestus stage and will cost about $33 million to develop.
Funding from European industry has yet to be found for these upgrades. "These payload lift upgrades will enable the Ariane 5 to keep pace with growth in satellite mass and to maintain the competitive advantage of Arianespace's dual-launch philosophy," Luton says.
Ariane 5 launcher production and launch rates will go up to 12 a year as early as 2002 and, later, even higher. The Ariane 5 production run covers a batch of 14 launchers ordered by Arianespace three years ago. One has been sold back to the European Space Agency for the Ariane 503 development launch (see box).
As part of the Ariane 5 "competitiveness improvement plan", production costs for the next batch of 20 will be cut by 40%. A free re-launch is offered if the new launcher fails. Arianespace plans to focus "-further upstream in the negotiation process with satellite customers, leading to a closer involvement in the planning process for clients' projects, even with the potential of full-fledged partnerships", particularly with those planning orbital constellations.
The SPECTRE OF ARIANE 503
Despite its bullish pronouncements at the ILA Berlin air show, Arianespace is embarrassed by the continued delay of the Ariane 503 launch - possibly by over a year from the 502 flight in October 1997. This European Space Agency (ESA) funded development flight is intended to pave the way for a fully operational Ariane 5 commercial flight, 504, to be conducted by Arianespace.
The 504 launch could be delayed until next year, Arianespace chairman and chief executive Jean-Marie Luton says. A commercial communications satellite payload for the 503 mission - which will also carry the ESA Automatic Re-entry Demonstrator - has yet to be found, but will probably be from Eutelsat.
The 503 flight must succeed if Arianespace is to take over operation of the new launcher. It follows the explosion which cut short the 501 flight in June 1996 and a "successful" 502 mission, which nonetheless would have been regarded as a partial failure had it been a commercial launch to GTO.
If 503 fails, all of Arianespace's plans will be academic because it would take years to restore customer confidence in the Ariane 5. The 503 mission, therefore, when it finally occurs, will be the most important event in recent European space history.
Source: Flight International
