Arianespace Company Center

Arianespace was founded in 1980 as the world’s first launch Service & Solutions company. It now has 23 shareholders from 10 European countries (including the French space agency CNES with 34%, EADS Astrium with 30% and all European companies participating in the production of Ariane 5 launchers). Since its creation, Arianespace has launched 267 payloads for 71 customers, accounting for more than half of the commercial satellites now in service.

The company generated sales of 956 million euros in 2008, with a net income of 2.5 million euros. As of January 1, 2009, Arianespace had 309 employees, including 247 at the company’s headquarters in Evry, near Paris, France; 50 at the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana launch site for Ariane 5, Soyuz and Vega; and 12 at international offices in Washington D.C., Tokyo and Singapore.

Operations

Arianespace offers launch Service & Solutions to satellite operators from around the world, both private companies and government agencies. The Arianespace family of launchers comprises:

• Ariane 5 heavy-lift launch vehicle, operated at the Guiana Space Center (43 launches, including 29 successful launches in a row, as of April 2009).
• Soyuz medium launcher, which has been operated at Baikonur, Kazakhstan since 1999 (21 commercial launches, all successful), and will be launched at the Guiana Space Center starting at the end of 2009.
• Vega light launcher, to be operated at the Guiana Space Center starting in 2010.

In 2008 Arianespace successfully carried out six Ariane 5 launches and one Soyuz launch, orbiting the ATV cargo vessel for the International Space Station, 10 communications satellites and one demonstrator satellite for the Galileo constellation. It will continue this launch rate in 2009, with seven Ariane 5 launches and the first Soyuz launch from the Guiana Space Center.

Launch services leadership

Capitalizing on its range of launchers, proven reliability and availability, Arianespace has won more than half of the commercial launch contracts open to competition worldwide in the last two years. This gives it a very healthy order book with the following (as of April 24, 2009):

• 32 satellites to be launched into geostationary transfer orbit, using Ariane 5 or Soyuz for the smaller spacecraft.
• Eight government launches by Ariane 5, including six for the ATV cargo vessel.
• Seven dedicated Soyuz launches.

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Last update by Mario de Lepine, Mon 27 Apr 2009