Company Also Gearing Up For Introduction Of Ariane 6 Booster

Arianespace has signed its first contract for the future Vega C launcher, while gearing up for the operation of Ariane 6. With an order book of 53 launches for Ariane 5, Soyuz and Vega, and fully engaged in marketing Ariane 6, Arianespace continues to prove its ability to satisfy current customers while addressing their future requirements.

Arianespace already has performed six launches this year between January 27 and June 1 – when the company celebrated the 79th successful Ariane 5 mission in a row while also setting a new record for payload injected into geostationary transfer orbit by this heavy launcher.

Arianespace announced that it has signed the first contract for its Vega C launcher, to deploy Airbus’ new generation of very-high-resolution optical Earth observation satellites. The contract provides for the launch of four satellites, using two Vega C launchers from the Guiana Space Center (CSG) in French Guiana, from mid-2020.

Arianespace also announced that it has signed a contract with OHB Italia SpA to launch an Earth observation satellite for the Italian space agency ASI, named PRISMA (PRecursore IperSpettrale della Missione Applicativa), to be orbited by a Vega rocket from the Guiana Space Center in 2018.

With these contracts, Vega and Vega C demonstrate they are perfectly compatible with the current and future launch markets for Earth observation satellites.

In addition to these contracts, Arianespace has signed two Ariane 5 launch contracts for geostationary satellites since the beginning of the year; the Horizon-3e, operated by SKY Perfect JSAT and Intelsat through a joint venture, with the launch planned as from the end of 2018 and a high-throughput communications satellite for Eutelsat, with a launch scheduled in 2019. Along with this mission, Eutelsat also will allocate two satellites, Eutelsat 7C and Eutelsat Quantum, for launches in 2018 and 2019, respectively. Arianespace will therefore launch three satellites for Eutelsat during this two-year period.

Arianespace’s order book now stands at 4.8 billion euros (approx. $5.35 billion) for 53 launches (18 by Ariane 5, 25 by Soyuz and 10 by Vega/Vega C) on behalf of 28 customers from around the world, clearly reaffirming its leadership in commercial space transport and its ability to meet all market expectations.

(Source: Arianespace news release. Image from file)

FMI: www.arianspace.com