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Feature story

Fiction comes down to Earth in the new comic book: Destination Arianespace

September 22, 2009

Comic books often have treated the exploration of space with futuristic themes, creating plotlines about fantastic voyages that challenge the imagination.

A new comic book developed by Arianespace brings dreams to today’s reality – explaining the company’s commercial launch service operations at the Spaceport’s state-of-the-art facilities in French Guiana.

While the story is fiction, it represents a realistic scenario in which two young entrepreneurs realize the goal of orbiting 25 mini-satellites aboard Ariane 5 to create a European digital radio service.

The two characters, named Philip and Chloe, follow the final integration and countdown for the Ariane 5 mission, which successfully lofts their payloads into circular Earth orbit. 

Philip has been a space enthusiast since his early years, having first watched a live television broadcast of Ariane 4’s maiden launch in June 1988.  Chloe is Philip’s friend, who applied her business capabilities to bring the digital radio service – called Jukeboxsat – to fruition.

The comic book, entitled Destination Arianespace, was first issued in French during this year’s Paris Air Show in June.  Its original goal was to bring the excitement of Arianespace’s operations to younger readers, and to inform them of the possibilities that commercial launch services can bring to the public.

Destination Arianespace became a popular item for readers of all ages at the Paris Air Show, and it was followed by an English version that was distributed for the first time at this month’s World Satellite Business Week – a gathering of high-level industry professionals in Paris.

Arianespace’s sponsorship of Destination Arianespace attracted the attention of Zoo Magazine, which is one of France’s leading publications on the genre of comic books.  Zoo Magazine interviewed Arianespace Chairman & CEO Jean-Yves Le Gall, who spoke about his passion for comic books since childhood.  Le Gall said he feels the same excitement at each Ariane 5 or Soyuz launch as experienced in the famous Tintin comic book, Destination Moon, where the young reporter departs on an historic space trip. 

“The ambiance prior to the nighttime liftoff of Tintin’s Moon rocket is just as I’ve experienced at real launch sites before an actual mission,” Le Gall explained.  “At Kourou [for Ariane 5] or Baikonur [for Soyuz], the same atmosphere exists…the reality is even better than fiction.”

• Download the “Destination Arianespace” comic book in English (.pdf file - 7.12 MB)
• Télécharger la bande dessinée “Destination Arianespace” en français (fichier .pdf - 5.22 MB)