[Satellite News 09-22-08] Arianespace’s recent order for ten Soyuz launch vehicles from the Russian space agency, Roskosmos, represents an investment in increased launch capacity and scale according to the Arianespace President, Clayton Mowry.
    Mowry told Satellite News that in terms of scale, Arianespace is going by a schedule of eight launches a year and that the new order ensures continuity and capacity well beyond dates associated with previous orders, battling back complaints of lack of capacity recently expressed at Euroconsult 2008 in Paris.
     “The order for 30 rockets back in 2004 and an additional 35 from Astrium in 2007 was announced to bring us at least through 2010. Now, we can go well beyond that,” said Mowry.
    Mowry added that he could not give a specific date on how far ahead Arianespace is stocked for launches, but assured that his company’s increase in launches per year justified in the increase of scale for future projections.
    “We have been planning on launching seven times in 2008 and eight times in 2009 but it will depend again on the delivery of the satellites to French Guiana,” said Mowry.
    Mowry also addressed the concern over launch costs expressed by CEOs of the world’s largest commercial satellite operators at Euroconsult.
    “I believe satellites and launchers are too expensive,” Giuliano Berretta, CEO of Eutelsat, said on a panel of operator executives at the conference. “What is happening in the last year is too much. Some of us have paid $120 million for a Proton. It is another world. There has been a change in policy in launching the rockets. The reliability has not improved, but the price has.”
    Dave McGlade, CEO of Intelsat, agreed with Berretta. “The costs of building and launching a satellite is going up far faster than inflation,” he said. “As it is dollar denominated, it is very expensive for us. We have to be careful as an industry in terms of how we push it. We want quality and price.”
    Dan Goldberg, CEO of Telesat, who recently launched the Nimiq 4 satellite, said that the increase in launch costs is beginning to have an impact on “whether projects can go forward.”
    Mowry said that in the last few years, launch costs have actually been lower than they should have been and that launchers were not making the money needed to invest in future capacity increase.
    “These investments and successes mean we must spend money,” said Mowry, adding that Arianespace has also made investments in quality by showcasing 27 successful Ariane 5 missions in a row.
    “I would echo the comments of [Arianespace CEO] Jean-Yves Le Gall at Euroconsult. Arianespace has invested in bringing additional launch capacity to the market by increasing the launch rate of Ariane 5 to eight launches per year – 16 satellites in dual manifest – and bringing the Soyuz to French Guiana where we can launch two to four times per year satellites weighing up to three metric tons,” said Mowry. 
    At Euroconsult, Le Gall claimed that the launch capacity available in the market today can orbit 30-40 satellites per year while the demand forecasted by satellite operators and manufacturers is between 20-25 per year. 
    Mowry added, “Launch opportunities exist in 2010.  So why are there complaints about a lack of capacity?”
    Arianespace said the newly-ordered Soyuz rockets will be launched from either the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana, or the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, starting in the second half of 2009.
    The contract provides for the supply of ten Soyuz ST launchers (three stages, fairing and Fregat upper stage), along with the preparation and launch operations. It follows the contract signed in June 2007 covering the first four Soyuz rockets to be launched from the Guiana Space Center.
    Le Gall and Anatoly Perminov, director of Roskosmos, signed the contract on Sept. 20 in Sochi during a French-Russian governmental seminar, attended by both the French and Russian prime ministers.