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Feature story

Building on success: Arianespace consolidates its launch services leadership

Paris Air Show 2007 special report

June 23, 2007

Arianespace Chairman and CEO Jean-Yves Le Gall shakes hands with François Auque, the Chairman of Astrium, after they signed the preliminary order concerning production of 35 Ariane 5 launchers. Witnessing the ceremony is France's newly elected President, Nicolas Sarkozy.

Arianespace has further consolidated its commercial launch services leadership by announcing five more contracts and ordering new Ariane 5 and Soyuz launchers during the Paris Air Show, which is being held this week at Le Bourget Airport.

With these major developments, Arianespace will be able to continue meeting its customers' evolving requirements with a growing launch vehicle family and high-quality service.

During the Paris Air Show, Arianespace announced the largest contract ever for the European space industry - a multi-launch framework agreement with SES covering missions over a five-year period, along with orders for Arabsat 5 (the Arab League), Thor 6 (Norway), Rascom 1 (Africa) and Insat 4G (India). With this new business, Arianespace's backlog is now equal to a workload exceeding three years - with 44 satellites to be launched.

Also at Le Bourget, Arianespace signed a preliminary order concerning the production of 35 Ariane 5 launchers and it inked a contract with the Russian space industry for acquisition of first four Soyuz rockets to be launched from Guiana Space Center. The new Ariane 5 agreement was concluded in the presence of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, while the signing ceremony for the Soyuz involved top Russian government and industry officials, led by Anatoly Perminov, Managing Director of the Russian Space Agency.