About Arianespace

Latest milestones

• February 13, 2012
  The qualification flight of Vega - performed under European Space Agency responsibility - is a success, clearing the way for Arianespace to take charge of the lightweight launcher's commercialization and operation.
• December 29, 2011
  An Arianespace/Starsem Soyuz mission from Baikonur Cosmodrome with Globalstar second-generation satellites closes out a very busy year of launch activity. The total of nine flights performed during 2011 were composed of two Soyuz launches at Baikonur Cosmodrome conducted by Starsem on behalf of its Arianespace parent, along with Arianespace's first two Soyuz liftoffs from the Spaceport in French Guiana, and five Ariane 5 missions from the Spaceport - lofting a total of 29 payloads with a combined mass of more than 63,000 kg.
• December 14, 2011
  Arianespace announces the first commercial contract signing for its Vega lightweight launcher, booking two satellites in the Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-3 families dedicated to Europe's GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) program. The launches are scheduled for 2014-2016 from the Spaceport in French Guiana.

Service & Solutions

Arianespace was founded in 1980 as the world’s first satellite launch company. Today, it has 21 shareholders from 10 European countries (including CNES with 34%, Astrium with 30% and all European companies participating in the Ariane 5 programme). Since its creation, Arianespace has signed contracts with 78 customers and launched with Ariane launchers 298 payloads, accounting for more than half of the commercial satellites now in service worldwide.

In 2010, the company had revenues of 897 M€. As of 1st July 2011, Arianespace had 332 employees, including 258 at the company’s headquarters in Evry, near Paris, 63 at the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana, launch site for Ariane 5, Soyuz and Vega, and 11 at local offices in Washington DC (United States), Tokyo (Japan) and Singapore.

Operations

Arianespace offers launch service & solutions to satellite operators from around the world, including both private companies and government agencies, based on a complete family of launchers:

• Ariane 5 heavy-lift launch vehicle, operated at the Guiana Space Center (60 launches, including 46 successful launches in a row),  
• Soyuz medium launcher, which has been operated at Baikonur since 1999 (23 commercial launches, all successful), and which, after the success of the first launch on 21 October 2011, is now being operated at the Guiana Space Center,
• Vega light launcher, which will be operated at the Guiana Space Center starting 2012.

Launch services leadership
 
Capitalizing on its range of launchers with their proven reliability and availability, Arianespace wins more than half of the commercial launch contracts open to competition worldwide each year. This gives it a very healthy order book, currently counting 27 different customers:

• 28 satellites to be launched into geostationary transfer orbit using Ariane 5,
• six dedicated launches of Ariane 5,  
• 16 dedicated Soyuz launches.

In 2011, five Ariane 5 launches and one Soyuz launch have been performed at the Guiana Space Center and two other Soyuz launches are planned, one in Baikonur and another one at the Guiana Space Center, as the preparation of the inaugural launch of Vega.

The technical performance of its launch vehicles and a substantial order book have made Arianespace the world leader in satellite launch services for the last few years, with a market share exceeding 50%.

• Cliquez ici pour consulter la carte d’identité en français (37 Kb. PDF)