[01-11-13] Commercial launch service provider Arianespace<\/b> had an exceptionally busy year in 2012 with 10 successful launches, but will attempt to top that performance in 2013, utilizing its expanded portfolio of Ariane 5, Soyuz and Vega rockets to fulfill a robust 12-mission schedule by the end of the year.<\/p>\n
The European launcher\u2019s manifesto calls includes 11 missions launched from its spaceport in French Guiana, with an additional Soyuz launch planned for liftoff from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan via Arianespace\u2019s Russian Starsem subsidiary.
\nSix of these missions will be carried out on Arianespace\u2019s heavy-lift workhorse Ariane 5 launches. Four launches will be carried out on its customized medium-lift Soyuz and one on its newest light-lift Vega rocket.
\n Arianespace\u2019s busy 2013 schedule will commence Feb. 4 with the Starsem Soyuz mission to send six Globalstar second-generation constellation satellites into orbit from Baikonur. The company will then race back to the European French Guiana spaceport to launch the Amazonas 3 and Azerspace\/Africasat-1a telecommunications satellites on an Ariane 5 rocket.
\nSpeaking at a press conference, Arianespace Chairman and CEO Jean-Yves Le Gall said the company\u2019s well-stocked launch catalog has allowed the company to establish multi-disciplinary teams for each of its three types of launchers.
\n \u201c[This scenario] creates synergies and reduces operational costs,\u201d said Le Gall. \u201cLooking at the Spaceport operations, Ariane 5 continues as the workhorse launcher, Soyuz has been working like clockwork since its introduction at French Guiana in October 2011, while Vega scored an on-target maiden flight during 2012, which is a real achievement when compared with other launcher introductions in our industry.\u201d
\n Arianespace\u2019s planned Soyuz launches will carry especially critical satellites for both commercial and government customers. Two of the four scheduled Soyuz missions will combine to send eight satellites into orbit for O3b Networks in order to boost the operator\u2019s highly anticipated broadband network. The other two Soyuz rockets will loft two full-operational capability Galileo satellites for Europe\u2019s multibillion-dollar satellite navigation system, as well as the European Gaia satellite and the European Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) program\u2019s Sentinel spacecraft.
\n \u201cArianespace is a success in partnership with the participating European nations and their companies, and we will continue to set our sights on remaining number one in the industry,\u201d said Le Gall.
\n Arianespace\u2019s current backlog covers three years of launch activity for a total of 4 billion euros in new business. The company maintained a 60 percent share of new launch contracts in 2012, signing 10 customer deals in the 12-month period. If all goes according to plan in 2013, Arianespace could secure its status as a top launch provider for several years to come. With the expansion of launch provider competition that has emerged since 2010, the health of the vanguard should be a good sign for the entire sector. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[01-11-13] Commercial launch service provider Arianespace had an exceptionally busy year in 2012 with 10 successful launches, but will attempt to top that performance in 2013, utilizing its expanded portfolio of Ariane 5, Soyuz and Vega rockets to fulfill a robust 12-mission schedule by the end of the year. The European launcher\u2019s manifesto calls […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81706"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81706\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}