Feature story
Arianespace and Japan: a partnership of trust
Chairman & CEO Jean-Yves Le Gall speaks to Arianespace's Japanese customers, industry managers and government representatives at the annual company-hosted reception in Tokyo this week.
April 11, 2008
Arianespace underscored its important role in the Japanese market during a week of activities that included today's signing of a new satellite launch for Ariane 5: the BSAT-3b spacecraft to be operated by Japan's Broadcasting Satellite System Corporation (B-SAT).
During a multi-day visit to Tokyo, Chairman & CEO Jean-Yves Le Gall and the Arianespace management team hosted a reception for Japanese customers, along with representatives from industry and government. Le Gall also met journalists for the company's traditional press briefing.
Attending the Tokyo signing ceremony for the BSAT-3b launch agreement were (from left to right) Valerie Pécresse, the French Minister of Research; Arianespace Chairman & CEO Jean-Yves Le Gall; B-SAT Corporation President & CEO Kazuo Takenaka; French Prime Minister François Fillon; and Philippe Faure, the French Ambassador to Japan. |
He noted that Arianespace's first commercial satellite launch for Japan was in 1989, and the company has won 25 of the total 34 commercial geostationary telecommunications platforms open for launch services competition in the Japanese marketplace.
The latest agreement for Arianespace's growing order book was signed today by Le Gall and B-SAT Corporation President & CEO Kazuo Takenaka for the BSAT-3b spacecraft, which is to be launched by Ariane 5 in the second half of 2010. This is the seventh satellite entrusted to Europe's Ariane launcher by B-SAT Corporation. After its launch, the satellite will be positioned at 110 deg. East longitude to provide direct-to-home broadcasts from geostationary orbit to subscribers across the Japanese archipelago.
The new agreement was inked during a ceremony at the French Embassy in Tokyo, which also was attended by French Prime Minister François Fillon and Valerie Pécresse, the French Minister of Research.
This win confirms Arianespace's role as the benchmark launch solution for Japanese companies. In addition to B-SAT Corporation, other leading Japanese operators that have made Arianespace their strategic preference for launch services include JSAT (the largest satellite operator in Asia), and the Space Communications Corporation (SCC).
Arianespace's mission flexibility and launch capacity has allowed it to accommodate Japanese satellites that faced delays with competing launchers, or which required replacement. In one example, the Horizons-2 spacecraft for a joint venture of JSAT and Intelsat was orbited by Ariane 5 in 2007, providing access to space when the payload could not be launched by a Zenit rocket. Arianespace also was able to schedule JSAT's JC-SAT 12 satellite for an Ariane 5 flight in 2009 – providing a replacement for JC-SAT 11, which was lost in a Proton launch failure last year.
In addition to its relations with Japanese customers, Arianespace has established a preferred partnership with Japan for the joint use of the Ariane 5 and H-IIA launchers. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, operator of the H-IIA, belongs to the Launch Services Alliance created by Arianespace and Sea Launch (Zenit) to guarantee launch dates for commercial satellites.
The partners activated this agreement in 2006 to launch the JC-SAT 9 satellite, and they are considering its extension to cover governmental missions. The European Space Agency (ESA); the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT); Arianespace and Japan's JAXA space agency currently are working on broadening this accord.
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