Overview | Who does what? | S5 satellite preparation facility | Practical information | Public visits | Spaceport history

The Spaceport

“Any mass, to any orbit, anytime”

• Ariane 5 offers the commercial marketplace’s greatest lift capacity, with 10 metric tons delivered to GTO and up to 20 metric tons to LEO
  
• Soyuz is an exceptionally versatile launcher, perfectly suited for mid-range payloads, MEO, LEO and Sun-synchronous satellites, as well as Earth escape missions
  
• Vega is Europe’s new lightweight launch vehicle and is tailored for small- to medium-sized satellite payloads on missions to LEO and Sun-synchronous orbit

Spaceport introduction > Who does what?

An Ariane launch is the result of teamwork that brings together skilled personnel from three organizations:

Arianespace As the commercial operator of the Ariane launch system, Arianespace is responsible for placing its customers' satellite payloads into orbit. The company markets Ariane launch services, acquires the Ariane launch vehicles, and handles all relations with customers. At the Spaceport, Arianespace manages the industrial team that integrates and prepares the Ariane for launch, and the company oversees the satellite campaign from the spacecraft's arrival through its injection into orbit. During a typical mission, approximately 60-70 members of Arianespace's total 380 employee staff are present at the Spaceport. These include about 50 Arianespace employees who are permanently based at the launch site, plus 10-20 additional team members who travel from Europe to support the mission.
The European Space Agency Composed of 14 European member nations, this space agency is the design authority for Ariane launchers. It developed the Spaceport's infrastructure - including the ELA-2 launch complex for Ariane 4 and ELA-3 for Ariane 5, and participated in the funding of the new S5 payload preparation facility. The agency entrusts the commercialization, production and launch of Ariane vehicles to Arianespace, and delegates Ariane's direction and financial management to the French CNES national space agency as prime contractor. European Space Agency web site www.esa.int.
CNES, the French national space agency France's Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales is the Ariane program prime contractor and operates the Guiana Space Center (Europe's Spaceport). Its launch vehicle directorate, co-located with Arianespace's headquarters in Evry near Paris, is responsible for the Ariane program on behalf of ESA. CNES organizes all the support activities involving the campaigns that prepare Ariane launchers and their commercial satellite payloads for liftoff from the Spaceport. It also is responsible for operation of the new S5 satellite payload preparation facility. CNES web site www.cnes.fr