Arianespace is facing a market
environment undergoing a profound quantitative and qualitative transformation, while competition is fiercer and more diversified than ever. Arianespace Chairman and CEO Jean-Marie Luton has outlined the way the company intends to meet this challenge.
Adapting to the Market
The development of new space applications, in particular telecommunications via satellite, is driving a significant increase in demand, along with its diversification. Demand is projected at 60 to 90 launches per year for the period 2001-2005, including 40 to 70 commercial launch contracts accessible to Arianespace.
By about 2002-2003, some 40 to 50% of the market could be generated by
satellite constellations in low or medium earth orbit, providing mobile
telephone and broadband multimedia services. No matter which type of orbit is used or the application provided, satellites continue to grow in size.
Satellites weighing 5 metric tons (11,000 lb.) will appear starting in 2000,
and by 2005 most telecommunications satellites will weigh over 4 metric tons
(8,800 lb.).
Competitiveness
Arianespace will offer the lowest possible launch prices, based on ongoing
reductions in Ariane 5 production costs. At the same time, performance of the European launcher will be significantly improved to lower the cost per kilo into orbit, while at the same time maintaining high quality and reliability.
Flexibility
To expand its services beyond the traditional geostationary orbit segment,
by providing its customers with a diversified array of launch services. These will be provided by new versions of the Ariane 5 heavy launcher, which
features designed-in flexibility, plus additional launchers with complementary capabilities.
Innovation
Commercial initiatives will move further upstream in the process, as
Arianespace will support its customers’ projects right from the initial design stage. Taking an entrepreneurial approach, this collaboration may also result in formal partnerships.
Facing the Competition
The market is now going through a transition period, enabling Arianespace
to capitalize on its long experience and advantages over its competitors.
Arianespace has a number of assets supporting its drive to establish itself as the benchmark in all segments of the space transportation market. Proven
service quality and experience built up over some twenty years translate into assets that are unrivaled in today’s emerging competitive marketplace.
Reliability and Proficiency
Ariane 4 boasts one of the best reliability records on the market. And
based on the projected reliability rate for Ariane 5, Arianespace is offering a free re-launch in case of a failure of the new launcher. This reliability underpins the operational proficiency of the Ariane system, now capable of launching every three weeks.
Availability and Accuracy
The Ariane system offers an exceptional array of advantages, recognized by
customers worldwide: flexibility and availability, based on high launch rates, different versions of the Ariane 4 launcher and service entry of Ariane 5 in 1998; and unmatched orbital injection accuracy, thanks to the equatorial launch site in French Guiana.
Transparency and Simplicity
The development and continuous improvement of Arianespace’s complete
launch services package is focused on a single goal: production and marketing
of space transportation for all customers. Backed by a powerful European
space industry, this dedication results in clear, transparent contractual and
technical relations with satellite operators.
Based on these proven advantages, combined with a proven offering of
reliable services allying quality and quantity, Arianespace is often the only
provider not only to guarantee operators access to space, but also to give
them the lead times and conditions that meet their operational and economic
requirements.
Meeting the Challenge
The advent of this intensely competitive environment will allow
Arianespace to demonstrate its adaptability.
These developments mark a new era in the history of the commercial space
market, as transport services become a mere commodity. Service providers now
have to be able to launch any type of satellite into any type of orbit, and to
do so on schedule!
Arianespace is strengthening its resources to become a space
transportation operator offering a diversified range of products that cover
all market segments.
Ariane 5, the Upgradeable Heavy Launcher
The various stages in the adaptation of Ariane 5 to evolving market
requirements are now clearly defined: a restartable upper stage, to support
orbital injection of new-generation constellation satellites starting in 2001;
GTO launch capacity increased to 9 metric tons (19,800 lb.) in 2001, and to 11
metric tons (24,200 lb.) in 2005, to keep pace with the growth in satellite
mass and maintain the competitive advantage of dual launch capability. At the
same time, launcher production and launch rate will be increased to 12 per
year as early as in 2002 and even higher subsequently.
Diversified Offering
Arianespace will span a wider range of market requirements, based on the
concurrent operation of Ariane 4 and Ariane 5 through about 2002-2003, and the
planned operation of launchers providing complementary capabilities.
Along the lines of the Starsem joint venture for Soyuz launches,
Arianespace aims to set up a single structure to coordinate an array of
launchers from different sources for constellation launch services, and to
seek strategic alliances with new industrial partners.
Production Efficiency
This approach is based on the extensive rationalization of Europe’s
industrial organization, within the framework of an Arianespace-led policy —
one of the responsibilities of the European space transportation operator.
