Arianespace is at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, booth 8809 – Hall D
At Satellite 2015, the top date in the calendar for all space operators, manufacturers, users and service providers, taking place in Washington, D.C. from Monday to Thursday, March 16 to 19, 2015, Arianespace reaffirms its position as the benchmark satellite launch service company for leading satellite manufacturers and operators.
Arianespace continues to confirm its operational and business leadership in 2015, after a performance in 2014 marked by three major successes for its future: a record number of launches, a rebalanced Ariane 5 backlog, and the start of the new Ariane 6 program, ideally suited to the challenges of the next decade.
Dynamic business performance, confirmed
Relying on its complete family of reliable, available launch vehicles, Arianespace signed four of the commercial launch contracts out of seven open to competition in the first quarter of the year: GEO-KOMPSAT-2A (GK2A) and GEO-KOMPSAT-2B (GK2B) with the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), and SES-12 and SES-15 with the operator SES.
Contracts on hand from 32 customers guarantee more than three years of business for Arianespace, with a backlog of orders worth more than 4.1 billion euros. This backlog includes 39 satellites to be launched into geostationary transfer orbit by Ariane 5, four dedicated Ariane 5 launches, six Soyuz launches and nine Vega launches.
Arianespace signed 14 launch contracts in 2014. It won nine out of the 18 open contracts on the commercial geostationary satellite market, giving it a 50% share.
Ambitious launch objectives
In 2015 Arianespace plans to equal the record of 11 launches set in 2014, and even to surpass it if satellites are ready on time. Plans include the launch of six or seven Ariane 5, two or three Soyuz and three Vega rockets.
The first mission of the year was carried out on February 11, 2015, as Vega boosted Europe’s IXV atmospheric reentry demonstrator into a suborbital trajectory.
The next launch is slated for March 27: a Soyuz launcher will orbit the two latest satellites in the Galileo navigation constellation.
The Thor 7 and Sicral 2 satellites are now being prepared at the Guiana Space Center for the first Ariane 5 mission of the year, scheduled on April 15.
Competitiveness: an imperative, even before the advent of Ariane 6
This operational performance should result in higher sales for 2014, of 1.399 billion euros.
Starting in 2015, Arianespace will take a full-fledged role in the continuous improvement of the European launcher industry’s competitiveness, and in revamping its governance. The first step in this evolution was the creation of the joint venture Airbus Safran Launchers in 2014.
About Arianespace
Arianespace is the world’s leading satellite launch company, providing innovation to its customers since 1980. Backed by 20 shareholders and the European Space Agency, the company offers an international workforce renowned for a culture of commitment and excellence. Arianespace is the only operator in the world capable of launching any mass to any orbit from the Guiana Space Center. As of March 16, 2015, 221 Ariane launches, 36 Soyuz launches (10 at the Guiana Space Centre and 26 at Baikonur with Starsem) and four Vega launches have been performed. The company’s headquarters is in Evry, near Paris, and has local offices in Washington DC (United States), Tokyo (Japan) and Singapore.
