[Satellite TODAY 01-06-11] Arianespace’s 2011 business model predicts 12 missions, as the company’s expanded launcher family, which includes the Soyuz and Vega, will begin full operations, Arianespace Chairman and CEO Jean-Yves Le Gall said at a press conference.
    Arianespace’s launch manifest includes six Ariane 5 missions, five flights with Soyuz and a Vega mission. The company’s 2011 launch activity will begin Feb. 15 with an Ariane 5 mission to orbit Europe’s second Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV).
    The company said its 2010 revenues dropped by about 10 percent, or 900 million euros ($1.2 billion), compared to 2009. Le Gall credited the drop to the launch of six Ariane 5 missions instead of the seven performed in 2009.
    Arianespace is scheduled to assume operational responsibility of the spaceport’s Soyuz launch pad in the spring, allowing final validations and launch rehearsal activity to be completed. In addition, three Soyuz flights for Arianespace are slated to be performed at Kazakhstan’s Baikonur Cosmodrome. Clusters of six Globalstar second-generation satellites will be launched on each of these missions.