Arianespace

Arianespace
Launch Service Provider
Industry Aerospace
Founded 1980
Headquarters Courcouronnes, France
Revenue Increase €1.433 billion (2015)
Increase €4 million (2015)
Number of employees
 321[1]
Parent ArianeGroup
Website arianespace.com

Arianespace SA is a multinational company founded in 1980 as the world's first commercial launch service provider.[2] It undertakes the operation and marketing of the Ariane programme.[3] The company offers a number of different launch vehicles: the heavy-lift Ariane 5 for dual launches to geostationary transfer orbit, the Soyuz-2 as a medium-lift alternative, and the solid-fueled Vega for lighter payloads.[4]

As of May 2017, Arianespace had launched more than 550 satellites[5] in 254 launches over 34 years (236 Ariane missions minus the first 8 flights handled by CNES, 17 Soyuz-2 missions and 9 Vega missions). The first commercial flight managed by the new entity was Spacenet F1 launched on May 23, 1984. Arianespace uses the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana as its main launch site. Through shareholding in Starsem, it can also offer commercial Soyuz launches from the Baikonur spaceport in Kazakhstan. It has its headquarters in Courcouronnes, Essonne, France,[6] near Évry.[7]

History

Arianespace SA was founded in 1980 as the operation and marketing arm of the Ariane launch vehicle programme,[2][3] seven years after the formation of the pan-national Ariane programme by the European Space Agency in 1973.[8]:161 The launcher was to be developed for the purpose of sending commercial satellites into geosynchronous orbit with a family of Ariane launch vehicles.[8]:161–166 France was the largest stakeholder in the Ariane development programme.[8]:166

Immediately following the successful first test launch of an Ariane 1 on 24 December 1979, The French space agency CNES and ESA created a new company—Arianespace—for the purpose of promoting, marketing, and managing Ariane operations.[8]:169

On 21 October 2011 Arianespace launched the first Soyuz rocket ever from outside former Soviet territory. The payload was two Galileo navigation satellites.[9] Three addition test flights were carried out, with one failure and two more successes. The first commercial launch was 10 September 1982, and ended in failure when a turbopump failed in the third stage.[8]:170–172 The six remaining flights of Ariane 1 were successful, with the final flight occurring in February 1986.

Arianespace had 24 shareholders in 2008,[10] and 21 as of 2014.[11]

Company and infrastructure

Arianespace Logo from 2009-2017

Arianespace "is the marketing and sales organization for the European space industry and various component suppliers."[12]

Arianespace primary shareholders are its suppliers, in various European nations.[13] As of 2018, Arianespace has 18 shareholders[14] while Belgium's Techspace Aero and the French Compagnie Deutsch SAS and EADS France SAS formerly held sub 0.01% shares.[11]

Country Total share Shareholder Capital
 Belgium 3.36% SABCA 2.71%
Thales Alenia Space Belgium 0.33%
Safran Aero Boosters 0.32%
 Denmark <0.01% Christian Rovsing A/S <0.01%
 France 64.10%
ArianeGroup 62.10%
Air Liquide SA 1.89%
Clemessy 0.11%
CIE Deutsche <0.01%
 Germany 19.85% Airbus Safran Launchers GmbH 11.59%
MT Aerospace AG 8.26%
 Italy 3.38% Avio S.p.A. 3.38%
 Netherlands 1.94% Airbus Defence and Space B.V. 1.94%
 Norway 0.11% Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace AS 0.11%
 Spain 2.14% Airbus Defence and Space SAU 2.03%
CRISA 0.11%
 Sweden 2.45% RUAG Space AB 0.82%
GKN Aerospace Sweden AB 1.63%
  Switzerland 2.67% RUAG Schweiz AG 2.67%

Arianespace shareholding has been restructured with the creation of an Airbus Safran Launchers company that will develop and manufacture the Ariane 6 launcher. Airbus and Safran shareholdings were pooled along with the purchase of the French governments CNES stake to form a partnership company holding just under 74% of Arianespace shares while the remaining 26% is spread across companies in ten countries including further Airbus subsidiaries.[15]

Corporate management

As of 2014, the Arianespace management team was:[16]

Position Name
CEO & Chairman Stéphane Israël
Senior Vice-President, Programs Louis Laurent
Senior Vice-President, Sales & Customers Jacques Breton
Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer Thomas Hundt
Vice President, Corporate Communication Isabelle Veillon

Offices

Location of Office Head of Branch
French Guiana Patrick Loire
USA Wiener Kernisan
Japan Kiyoshi Takamatsu
Singapore Richard Bowles

Subsidiaries

  • Arianespace inc. (U.S. Subsidiary)
  • Arianespace Singapore PTE LTD. (Asian Subsidiary)
  • Starsem S.A. (European-Russian Soyuz commercialization)

Competition and pricing

In 2004, Arianespace held more than 50% of the world market for boosting satellites to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO).[17]

However, the disruptive force represented by the new sector entrant SpaceX forced Arianespace to cut back on its workforce and focus on cost-cutting to decrease costs to remain competitive against the new low-cost entrant in the launch sector.

According to an Arianespace managing director, "It's quite clear there's a very significant challenge coming from SpaceX," he said in 2015. "Therefore things have to change … and the whole European industry is being restructured, consolidated, rationalised and streamlined."[18]

In the midst of pricing pressure from U.S. company SpaceX, Arianespace made a November 2013 announcement of pricing flexibility for the "lighter satellites" it carries to Geostationary orbits aboard its Ariane 5.[19][12]

In early 2014, Arianespace was considering requesting additional subsidies from European governments to face the competition from SpaceX and unfavorable changes in the Euro-Dollar exchange rate. The company had halved subsidy support by €100m per year since 2002 but the fall in the value of the US Dollar meant Arianespace was losing €60m per year due to currency fluctuations on launch contracts.[20]

Reducing the cost allowed Arianespace to sign four additional contracts in September 2014 for lower slots on a Ariane 5 SYLDA dispenser for the satellites that otherwise could be flown on a SpaceX launch vehicle.

Arianespace signed 11 contracts in 2014 until September that year. with two additional being in a late stage of negotiations. As of September 2014 Arianespace has a backlog of launches worth €4.5 billion with 38 satellites to be launched on Ariane 5, 7 on Soyuz and 9 on Vega, claiming 60% of the global satellite launch market.[21][22][23]

By November 2014, SpaceX had "already begun to take market share"[13] from Arianespace, and Eutelsat CEO Michel de Rosen — a major customer of Arianespace — said that "Each year that passes will see SpaceX advance, gain market share and further reduce its costs through economies of scale."[13]

Launch vehicles

Mockups of all the launch vehicles that Arianespace markets as of 2017: Vega, Vega-C, Soyuz, Ariane 5, and the future Ariane 6.

Currently Arianespace operates 3 launch vehicles, including two versions of Ariane 5:

Name Payload to LEO (including SSO) Payload to GTO
Vega 1,450 kilograms (3,200 lb) -
Soyuz 4,400 kilograms (9,700 lb) 3,250 kilograms (7,170 lb)
Ariane 5 ECA - 10,500 kilograms (23,100 lb)
Ariane 5 ES 21,000 kilograms (46,000 lb) -

Additionally Arianespace offers optional back-up launch service on H-IIA through Launch Services Alliance.[24]

Ariane launch vehicles

Since the first launch in 1979, there have been several versions of the Ariane launch vehicle:

  • Ariane 1, first successful launch on December 24, 1979
  • Ariane 2, first successful launch on November 20, 1987 (the first launch on May 30, 1986 failed)
  • Ariane 3, first successful launch on August 4, 1984
  • Ariane 4, first successful launch on June 15, 1988
  • Ariane 5, first successful launch on October 30, 1997 (the first launch on June 4, 1996 failed).

The new Ariane 6 vehicle is in development. It would have a similar payload capacity to the Ariane 5 but have considerably lower costs. Tentatively, its first flight is planned for 2020.

See also

Other launch service providers

References

  1. ↑ 2014 Annual Report (PDF) (Report). Courcouronnes, France: Arianespace. 15 June 2015. Retrieved 6 August 2015.
  2. 1 2 Jaeger, Ralph-W.; Claudon, Jean-Louis (May 1986). Ariane — The first commercial space transportation system. Proceedings of the 15th International Symposium on Space Technology and Science. 2. Tokyo, Japan: AGNE Publishing, Inc. (published 1986). Bibcode:1986spte.conf.1431J. A87-32276 13-12.
  3. 1 2 "Arianespace was founded in 1980 as the world's first launch services company". arianespace.com. Archived from the original on February 18, 2008. Retrieved 2008-03-07.
  4. ↑ "Service & Solutions". arianespace.com. Archived from the original on 12 February 2011. Retrieved 2011-02-15.
  5. ↑ "Arianespace company profile" (PDF). Arianespace. May 5, 2017. Retrieved May 23, 2017.
  6. ↑ "Russians, French sign space contract.(UPI Science Report)." United Press International. 12 April 2005. Retrieved on 24 September 2009.
  7. ↑ "Contact us." Arianespace. Retrieved on 24 September 2009.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 Harvey, Brian (2003). Europe's Space Programme: To Ariane and Beyond. Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN 1-8523-3722-2.
  9. ↑ "Arianespace Launches First European Soyuz". Interspacenews.com. Retrieved 2011-12-17.
  10. ↑ Corporate information > Shareholders, Arianespace, 8 September 2008, accessed 16 April 2008.
  11. 1 2 "Shareholders". Arianespace. Archived from the original on 8 October 2014. Retrieved 14 April 2018.
  12. 1 2 Mr. Richard (23 June 2013). Singapore Satellite Industry Forum 2013 - Changing the Launch Game? (video). Singapore Satellite Industry Forum 2013: Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia. Retrieved 14 April 2018 – via YouTube.
  13. 1 2 3 de Selding, Peter B. (2014-11-20). "Europe's Satellite Operators Urge Swift Development of Ariane 6". SpaceNews. Retrieved 2014-11-21. France-based Arianespace has responded by squeezing, to a limited degree, its supplier base. But Ariane 5 builders are also Arianespace shareholders, limiting the company’s leverage on them.
  14. ↑ http://www.arianespace.com/company-profile/
  15. ↑ http://www.arianespace.com/service-and-solutions/
  16. ↑ "Management team". Arianespace. Retrieved 8 September 2014.
  17. ↑ John McCormick (2004). The European Union (3rd ed.). Westview Press. p. 273. ISBN 978-0-8133-4202-3.
  18. ↑ David Ramli (19 May 2015). "NBN launcher Arianespace to cut jobs and costs to fight SpaceX". The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia).
  19. ↑ de Selding, Peter B. (2013-11-25). "SpaceX Challenge Has Arianespace Rethinking Pricing Policies". Space News. Retrieved 2013-11-27. The Arianespace commercial launch consortium is telling its customers it is open to reducing the cost of flights for lighter satellites on the Ariane 5 rocket in response to the challenge posed by SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.
  20. ↑ Svitak, Amy (2014-02-11). "Arianespace To ESA: We Need Help". Aviation Week. Retrieved 2014-02-12.
  21. ↑ "Arianespace nets four commercial launch contracts". 8 September 2014. Retrieved 9 September 2014.
  22. ↑ "World Satellite Business Week 2014: A rich harvest of contracts for Arianespace" (Press release). 8 September 2014. Retrieved 9 September 2014.
  23. ↑ "Europe's Arianespace Claims 60% Of The Commercial Launch Market". 9 September 2014. Retrieved 9 September 2014.
  24. ↑ "Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Arianespace conclude MOU on cooperation in commercial space rocket launches". Arianespace. 7 June 2013. Retrieved 18 August 2014.

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